The Police Service Commission (PSC) is demanding that the Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, set up a competent Committee to conduct further investigations into the activities of the Officer in charge of the Legal Unit and the Deputy Commissioner in charge of Operations of the 7th Zonal Command of the Force.
The demand for investigation is following reports of abuse of office, extortion, and gross misconduct against them, which run contrary to the rules of engagement and conduct of Police Officers.
A statement on Tuesday by the Head of the Press and Public Relations Department of the Commission, Ikechukwu Ani, said the demand was made in an official letter by the PSC Chairman, DIG Hashimu Argungu, in line with his avowed commitment to purge the Police from meddling in civil matters.
The letter was prompted by a complaint/petition received from Alhaji Abubakar Yahaya against the two-zone officers who, against repeated warnings, were involved in civil matters and supervised/ provided cover for the demolition of the petitioner’s residential property where he had lived for over 15 years.
In the letter to the IGP, the PSC Chairman said that on the 19th of December 2024, the Police and enforcement staff from the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, went to the residence of the petitioner, Abubakar Yahaya, threw away his property and chased his family members out of his residence.
DIG Argungu disclosed that the enforcement Unit of the High Court, led by Shamsudeen Ubandoma, took the sum of seven hundred thousand Naira (N700,000.00) from the petitioner under the guise or pretense of giving it to the Policemen who came with him for enforcement so that they wouldn’t come back for enforcement again.
He said on January 16, 2025, “Some policemen with an enforcement team from the court, accompanied by one faceless Alhaji Usman Sarki—the purported owner of the plot on the said No 75 Lome Crescent, Wuse Zone 7 Abuja, under dispute in court, brought trucks and bulldozers, which were used in the demolition of the petitioner’s residence.”
The PSC Chairman, in the letter to the IGP, said the petitioner was arrested by the Officer in charge of the Legal Unit, Zone 7 Police Command, for criminal conspiracy, trespass, and mischief, adding that the sum of one million Naira was collected from him for securing his bail.
“It is now very apparent that the demolition of his residence was done solely on the strength of the Police, led by the Officer in charge of Legal Unit, who is meant to be a Police prosecutor but turned into a tool of oppression and aided by the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations who led the Police to demolish the petitioner’s residence without any justification or adhering to the principle of natural justice,” the letter said.
The PSC Chairman said the petitioner’s prayers include; “having been rendered homeless as a result of the act of the Officers-in-Charge of Legal Unit and the Deputy Commissioner in charge of Operations who are the major culprits of this heinous act, that the duo should be investigated and appropriate sanctions meted on them, as well as the payment of one billion Naira for the action of the Police, as compensation.”
