Magodo: Outrage Over Police Officer’s Refusal To Obey Sanwo-Olu

– Malami, IGP under fire over police deployment to estate

By Alao Abiodun and Oyebola Owolabi, The Nation

A police officer’s refusal on Tuesday to obey Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu sparked outrage on Wednesday.

The Inspector-General of Police Usman Baba and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN) came under fire over the deployment of policemen in Magodo Phase II Estate, Lagos.

Their alleged involvement drew knocks from the Southwest Governors Forum, lawyers and lawmakers.

The police officer in charge of the team, Bimbola Oyewole, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), had told the governor that he was acting on instruction.

“I’m here on the instruction of the IGP through the AGF,” he told the governor.

Sanwo-Olu on Tuesday urged the parties to ‘stand down’, pending when the matter would be resolved.

Before the governor visited the troubled estate, over 50 armed policemen had laid siege to it following the planned demolition of some properties labelled: ‘Possession Taken Today 21/12/21 by Court Order’.

The police also allegedly invaded the community with members of a family said to be executing a Supreme Court judgment on the ownership of the land on which the properties were built.

When Sanwo-Olu and members of the executive council visited the estate, he met CSP Oyewole, who told him his team had been sent from Abuja to execute the Supreme Court judgment.

After the police team lead could not provide a copy of the judgment as demanded, the governor ordered the policemen to deactivate their operation and leave Lagos in the interest of peace.

But the officer refused, saying he was acting on the orders of the AGF and IG.

The governor then told him to call his superior and those who gave him instruction, saying the matter was between the Lagos State Government and the judgment creditor.

Sanwo-Olu said: “It is a case between the residents of Lagos and the supposed people, not the residents. They have nothing to do with the residents.

“Please, can you call your superior now in Abuja that the governor is standing in front of you, and, as the Chief Security Officer, I want you to leave now as you have no business in my state, and that I want you to disengage now?”

But, the officer insisted that his rank was too low to call his superior officers, and he would not leave with his team, since he was acting on the instruction of the AGF through the IG.

However, after several calls placed to the authorities in Abuja, Sanwo-Olu briefed the residents and appealed to the concerned parties to ‘stand down’ until the matter is completely resolved.

He then invited the stakeholders to a meeting in his office at 11 am Wednesday, saying the issues called for proper deliberation in the interest of peace.

Sanwo-Olu said he spoke with Malami who denied knowledge of the deployment of police to the estate.

Activist lawyer Jiti Ogunye described the Magodo crisis as a rule of law catastrophe.

Also, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa stated that only restructuring could save the nation.

Governors of southwest states condemned the alleged role of Malami in deploying security operatives.

Southwest Governors Forum Chairman Rotimi Akeredolu, in a statement, said it was ‘disgraceful’ for a security agent to disregard Sanwo-Olu.

The Ondo State, who described the incident as a brazen assault on decency, lashed at Malami’s role, describing it as an ‘act of gross moral turpitude”.

He also said the IG must explain the justification for the intrusion.

The governor maintained that President Muhammadu Buhari must reign in the excesses of those under him.

Akeredolu assured Sanwo-Olu of his colleagues’ support but advised him to deploy the Amotekun Corps for effective protection and security of his people.

The statement reads: “We are in possession of a video which has gone viral on the social media concerning the disgraceful exchange between a police officer, a CSP, and the Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwoolu, the supposed Chief Security Officer of the State, at the Magodo Residential Estate.

“The content of the video is very disconcerting, and this is being charitable.

“The utter disrespect, which underlines the response of the officer to the governor establishes, beyond doubt, the impracticability of the current system, dubiously christened federalism.

“An arrangement, which compels the governor of a state to seek clarifications on security issues in his jurisdiction from totally extraneous bodies or persons, is a sure recipe for anarchy.”

Two members of the House of Representatives – Ademorin Kuye of Somolu Federal Constituency and Rotimi Agunsoye representing Kosofe Federal Constituency – said Malami’s alleged involvement, as well as that of the IG, should be probed.

They urged the House to “mandate the committees on justice, public petition and Police to investigate the involvement of the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Inspector-General of Police in the attempt to destabilise the peace of Lagos state, scuttle the ongoing settlement process and enforce an illegality”.

Ogunye noted that Malami and IGP’s agents were not court sheriffs empowered under Sheriff and Civil Process Act (SCPA).

He said: “The Magodo Lagos incident is a rule of law catastrophe.

“AGF and IGP’s agents lawfully cannot invade the estate in the pretext of enforcing a Supreme Court judgment.

“They are not Sheriffs of Court empowered to so do under the SCPA. If the LASG disobeyed the court, the redress venue is still the court, not the office of IGP or AGF!

“The AGF has no power to instruct the IGP to enforce the judgment of the Supreme Court.

“The IGP has no authority outside the provisions of the Sheriffs and Civil Process Act to enforce the order of any court, Supreme, Appellate or High.

“If the judgment is not being obeyed, it is still the court that parties must return to.

“Court judgments are not enforced by policemen but by the sheriffs who are assisted, security-wise, by the police.

“The enforcers are the sheriffs and the mechanism of enforcement is a ‘civil’ process. Not a martial or police process!

“The Supreme Court has the NJC by its side to receive petitions and punish any judicial officer that may be frustrating enforcement of its orders and can direct that the CJ of any state should ensure that any sheriff that subverts its orders be sanctioned.

“The judgment creditors have my sympathy. My sense of justice should make me their ally.

“But I can’t in good conscience support a situation in which agents of the central government in a supposed federation are recklessly invading a state in the name of enforcing a judgment in the face of tons of judgments being disobeyed by the Federal Government and its agencies, including the police.

“No reasonable person should support this irresponsible conduct.

“For the Lagos State Government that is locked in a fresh legal battle with the judgment creditors on appeal over the writ of possession that was issued and set aside, the resolution route is a settlement and compliance with the judgment.

“The judgment of our courts is binding on all authorities and persons – Section 287 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The judiciary that gave the judgment is the third arm of government.

“It is, therefore, an act of executive lawlessness if the executive branch willfully and perennially disobeys the decision of the judicial arm.

“We note, however, that litigation is still pending on the enforcement aspect of the judgment.

“Incidentally, history is repeating itself. The complaint of the judgment creditors was that while their action was in court and after the court had granted an injunction in their favour, the Lagos State Government and its officials kept allocating their lands to third parties. Terrible? Of course.

“But consider the situation today. While the fresh action on the set-aside writ of possession is pending in the Court of Appeal, the judgment creditors have resorted to self-help, illegally aided by the AGF and IGP to take over the subject matter of the pending appellate litigation,” Ogunye said.

Adegboruwa decried the stripping of governors of powers.

He said: “The 1999 Constitution tells a lie against the people of Nigeria when it claims that we are running a federation but strips the governor of a state of powers over security.”