A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chukwuemeka Ofodile, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police over alleged harassment and threats to the personal liberty of his clients, orchestrated by some officers of the Nigeria Police Force.
The petition dated December 19, 2024, was titled, “Re: Unlawful Harassment and Threats to Personal Liberty etc. by Men of The Police Command, Following the Institution of Suit Number: FHC/EN/CS/198/2024-Barrister Vincent Okafor and Six others Vs. IGP and 17 others etc.”
Ofodile’s clients who were listed as the 1st to 7th plaintiffs in the aforementioned civil suit, include a Lagos-based lawyer, Vincent Okafor, Chief Theophilus Chukwu, Mr. David Okeke, and Chiefs, Okeke Emmanuel Uwa, Ochie Moses Chuka, Okolie James Ikegwuonu and Simeon Ogbonna Okike.
In the urgent petition to the IGP, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent in Abuja, Ofodile alleged that his clients were being subjected to unlawful harassment and threat to personal liberty by men of the Nigeria Police Force, following the civil suit that they instituted.
He said: “I am the lead counsel to the plaintiffs in the said suit. In the purely civil suit, our clients in the exercise of their constitutional rights, are seeking several reliefs from the Federal High Court Enugu.
“The reliefs include declaratory and injunctive orders. This, we must emphasize, is within their rights in a democracy, such as ours. I have nothing personal whatsoever against you or any officer of the Nigerian Police Force, mentioned as a party.
“It is our instruction that following the service of the originating processes on some of the defendants, some men of the Police Force, particularly those working around the Enugu State command, decided to go beyond established and settled procedures.
“Our clients and their supporters, we are further informed/instructed, are presently being hounded around like common criminals, with intimidation and threats of possible incarceration. We stand to be corrected by the officers concerned.
‘It is therefore in the light of the above-narrated facts that we appeal to you to kindly use your good office to look into our complaint with a view to bringing the erring officers to order.”
Recall that the 1st to 18 defendants/ respondents in the suit respectively, are the Inspector General of Police, Nigeria Police Force, Commissioner of Police, Enugu State Command, Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), HRH Igwe Cyprian Maduabuchi Nevobasi and Mr. Onuselogu Nevobasi.
The other defendants/respondents are Mr Jonathan Azubike Onuoha, Sir Laz Udeogboke, Oliver Chukwuobasi, Okekefi Iloham, Nnamdi Muodebe Okolo, Frederick Ngene, Patrick Ekweani, John Anugwa, Okonkwo Kenechukwu, Christian Chukwuemezie, James Chukwude and Ikechukwu Okpala.
In the suit, the plaintiffs are seeking among other reliefs, a declaration of the court that their invitation and continued harassment by the 1st to 4th defendants/ respondents, on the basis of a withdrawn petition against them by the 5th to 18th respondents, constituted false arrest, detention and imprisonment on a fabricated none existent complaint/petition.
They want the court to declare that the purported arraignments of Vincent Okafor, Theophilus Chukwu and David Okeke, the 1st to 3rd plaintiffs, and others at large, by the police at various magistrate courts in Enugu State and their remand in Correctional Centre Enugu, for purportedly carrying out warlike undertaking against Nevobasi and Agunese indigenes and cyberstalking, constitutes illegality, false imprisonment and a clear violation of the fundamental rights of the affected persons.
