By Awaal Gata
A middle-aged businessman from Kogi state, Zachari Isiaka Omajemi, has accused some police officers of ‘unlawfully’ invading his house and destroying some parts of it.
The act, he said, happened in December 2013.
The house, he said, is located at Odu-Usene, Anyingba, in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi state.
In a petition filed by his lawyer, I. A. Aliyu at High Court of Justice of Kogi state in Kogi Judicial Division Holden at Ayingba, of which a copy was shown to Blueprint at the weekend, Omajemi alleged that the officers also carted away some his properties during the invasion.
Defendants in the suit are: the Nigerian Police Force, the Inspector General of Police, Police Service Commission, Kogi state Commissioner of Police, Attah Momoh, Amos (Alias No Life) and Christian Yusuf.
According to him, some of the properties seized from the house were: a Golf III car, a Lister power generating set, a refrigerator, an LG plasma TV and a Nigerian International Passport belonging him.
Other items were, a cheque of N10 million issued to him by one Ganif Attah, 80 bundles of Ankara wrappers, a three loader CD Player, four DVD players, three mattresses, five bags of raw beans, three bags of rice and two cartons of spaghetti.
A written narration of what transpired partly reads: “I built a house in Odu-Usene, Anyingba, Dekina Local Government, Kogi-State where I reside with my family until recently. The said house was a four bedroom apartment with another four separate units of two room’s apartments adjacent the Four bedroom Flat. The said house was completely fenced with a gate at the front and a small exit gate at the back. I finished building the said Four-bedroom flat around march 2011 while the four units of two rooms apartment were still under construction.
“On the 30th of December,2013, I left my house to see a friend in a neighbouring village who was then very sick and later returned to see my house completely destroyed beyond recognition and my properties including my Golf car were removed from my house.
“My wife, gateman and other persons who were at home when the brazen destruction took place briefed me on what happened and while I was still pondering about, the motive for the destruction of my house by this apparently disgruntled persons, one Attah Momoh whom I know to be working with the Kogi state command of the Nigerian Police Force called and informed me that he was the person that led the police team that visited my house on 30th December, 2013.
“The said Attah Momoh and one other person who told me his name was Amos called me via the same phone number few days after and informed me that their reason for visiting my house was to kill me”.
In his account, Alhaji Sule, the watchman of the house who witnessed the ‘invasion’, corroborated Omajemi’s claims.
Sule’s written statement reads in part: “ On 30th December, 2013, at about 11:00 am in the morning while I was standing guard at my position at the main gate of the Omajemi’s house, I saw a large group of fierce-looking, heavily armed police officers; all of whom were piled into about two Hilux vans, an Armored Personal Carrier (APC) and a Golf III wagon, driving towards our house at breakneck speed.
“The said police officers in the APC did not even slow down when they got to the gate, nor did they ask me to open the gate, but rather they proceeded to ram their APC straight into the gate to the house with enough force that they forced open the gate.”
According to Sule, “Upon the gate being forcefully opened by such heavily armed men, I became afraid for my life and I ran inside the main building for safety.
That the said police officers alighted from their various vehicles and immediately started destroying any property within reach whilst menacingly approaching the main building.
“On sighting them from the window, myself and other occupants of the house at the time; Noah Momoh, Fitumi(wife to the Omajemi) Juheira Zachari, and Suleiman Isiaka who were in the main building escaped through the back door to the house.
“That we were so frightened by the demeanour and actions of the police people that none of us even had the courage to run back into the compound to pick Rufai Zachari, a 15months old baby of the Applicant who was at the time playing somewhere in the main building.
“Myself and other occupants of the house escaped from the compound through the back gate of the house and ran to the left side of the compound and stood beneath a large tree from where we were able to watch the front gate.
That the commotion from the compound was so loud that it attracted the attention of several other villagers all of whom joined us in gathering outside the front gate of the house.”
In another twist of events, Omajemi said the police officers are currently threatening his life, and that he should never set his foot in Kogi.
According to him, the officer known as Attah Momoh “demanded that I deposit the sum of N500, 000.00 into a bank account that he would be sending to me or risked being killed by them. When I asked the said Attah Momoh the reason for their action, Attah Momoh told the me to disclose the source of my wealth.. is interested in knowing how I got money to build such a beautiful house, and that they know that my house was build with proceed from crime.”
Omajemi, however, disclosed that he had never been “involved in any crime; even criminals are never treated like I was without following the rule of law.”
However, declaring the officer’s invasion as “trespass” and the properties seizure as “conversion”, Omajemi wants the court to award him with the sum of N100 million against the defendants as exemplary and punitive damages.
When contacted to tell the police side of the story, the officer assigned to investigate the case declined.