Alleged unlawful demolition: Traders ask I-G to investigate police officers

Abuja Traders’ Association has asked the Inspector-General (I-G) of Police, Usman Baba, to order the arrest and prosecution of 30 police officers used by Urban Shelter Limited to supervise alleged illegally demolition of structures at Abuja shopping complex.

The association also drew the attention of the I-G to the arrest, intimidation and harassment of its executive officers by the police acting on the instruction of Urban Shelter Limited.

The traders made the allegations in a petition to Baba dated April 28, 2023, through their counsel, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume, SAN.

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Ume, who gave detail background of how the company, in flagrant disobedience to a subsisting court order, mobilised the officers, allegedly tagged to be fake, to give protection to the demolition of the structures at the UTC, Area 7, urged the I-G to intervene.

“The said policemen arrived at the UTC, Area 7 Shopping Complex at about 5am on April 4, and gave a fake police protection to the illegal demolition team organised by Urban Shelter, in its efforts to demolish the complex.

“The fact that this illegal demolition done on the complex and its environs that day were all done by the illegal demolition team recruited by Urban Shelter and Abuja Metropolitan Management Council is axiomatic,” the petition read in part.

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The lawyer called on the police boss not to allow the Nigerian Police Force to be used as a tool for promoting selfish interest of an agent provocateur.

He drew the attention of the police to the relevant provisions of its Act and the 1999 Constitution, which is to protect the society from acts of criminality, lives and property of citizens and apprehend offenders and preserve law and order.

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“It is wrong for the Nigerian Police Force to lend itself as a tool for disobedience of court orders and manipulations by selfish persons.
“It is therefore demanding on your office to immediately take measures to prosecute the 30 perons impersonating your officers and those who aided them, that is Urban Shelter, as well as ensure that the officers of the Traders’ Association are not harassed,” Ume said.(NAN)