…as applicants give PSC 30-day pre-action notice of N500bn for general, aggravated, exemplary damages
By Chuks Eke
Delta State High Court sitting in Asaba, the state capital and presided over by Justice G.B. Briki-Okolosi has fixed Tuesday, July 28, this year for judgement in a committal proceeding brought against the state Commissioner of Police, CP Yemi John Oyeniyi.
Joined in the committal proceeding as co-respondent are the Details Commissioner of police, DCP in charge of the State Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Bureau, SCIIB and 16 other senior officers, including the Officer incharge of Legal Department (O/C Legal), CSP Gladys Ekpakuemu Imegu.
Justice Briki-Okolosi in a reaction while fixing the date during the last hearing date shortly after hearing Ejike Efobi Esq, counsel to the Applicants opposing an Application for adjournment made by Dr. R. O. Ishiguzo with D. C. Patrick (Miss), counsel to the Respondents, said it is not difficult to conclude that Respondents have hatched the recurrent Applications for adjournment as a ploy to further delay the case.
According to the court, “Adjournments are normally not granted as a matter of course but at the discretion of the Court. It means that an adjournment will not be granted just for the asking. The Respondents have not demonstrated that they merit the grant of another adjournment when their statement on the last adjourned date conflicts with what they have said today, after an adjournment of about a full month”.
“I uphold the objection of Efobi, learned counsel to the Applicants and accordingly direct him to proceed with the matter of the day”, said the judge.
Aggrieved members of the Sand Dealers Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society Limited based at Zion Land, Ogbeofu Beach, Cable Point, Asaba had slammed the contempt proceeding (Form 48 and 49) against the CP and his lieutenants for them to appear before the court and explain why they should not be committed to prison for disobedience of court order which directed them to stop arresting the Applicants and disrupting their dredging activities at some listed Beaches in Asaba, including Ogbeofu Beach.
The applicants alleged that the respondents had flagrantly disobeyed a court order which directed the CP to immediately deploy a crack team of mobile policemen to the various beaches all covered by a Writ of possession in Suit No: FHC/B/CE/127/2000 Between Mr. Kutty O. C. Essumai Vs. the Honourable Minister of Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development & 4 ORS, to protect them from the invasion of their adversaries, based on the allegations of breach of Property Rights, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive application for Enforcement of their Fundamental Rights before the Court.
The officers listed in the committal proceedings include CSP Gladys Imegu (Officer-in-Charge, Legal, State CID), Asaba, ASP Denis Otunyo, Godwin Uangbaoje, ASP Akinyemi Apu, CSP Muhammad Balarabe Ibrahim, ASP Moses Davis, Inspectors Chiefu Eboagwu and Monday Imala, Monday Adebamen (DCO, ‘C’ Division), and the Area Commander, Asaba, Alex Udenze.
At the centre of the legal battle is a long-running and violent dispute over rights to dredge sands along the Asaba end on the creek of the River Niger.
Members of the cooperative society (Applicants), led by David Opene (also known as Jah Dave), Kutty Esumai and Raymond Adams, had accused the state police command of wilfully refusing to arrest and prosecute officials of the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development for disrupting their sand dredging activities, alleging that rather than giving them (Applicants) protection to carry out their sand dredging activities as ordered by the court in Suit No. FHC/B/CS/287/2003 David Opene & 2 ORS. Vs. the Inspector-General of Police, IGP & 5 ORS, the office of Commissioner of police has rather been arresting, detaining and prosecuting their members, while shielding and protecting the thugs allegedly hired by the Ministry to invade their beaches, disrupted their operations and even killed four of their members on the process.
According to the contempt proceeding, the cooperative alleged that some of its members were arrested by the police in connivance with the alleged attackers, arraigned before another court and remanded in custody, while those accused of the killings and violent invasion were left untouched.
The group contended that the Delta state Police Command had equally allegedly ignored a directive from the Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), conveyed through the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone 5, Benin City, ordering the re-arrest and prosecution of those hired thugs and those who hired them involved in the invasion and killings, adding that the directive was based on legal advice from the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID), Abuja.
At the last hearing date when the contempt proceeding came up in court in June, this year, the court refused to grant the Respondents’ application for adjournment in the absence of any defense filed by the Respondents.
The court having refused to grant the Respondents’ application for adjournment, lead counsel to the Respondents, Dr. Ishiguzo urged the court to dismiss the committal proceeding against the police commissioner and his lieutenants because according to him, there is nothing to show that the Respondents, CP John Oyeniyi and others were personally served with the processes or that he acknowledged personal receipt of the Form 48 and 49.
Replying, Efobi, the Applicants’ counsel argued that there is no evidence before the Court to show that the processes served on the Respondents in accordance with the order of the Court did not get to them. Efobi therefore urged the court to discountenance the objections of the Respondents and grant the reliefs of the Applicants by committing the Respondents to prison for disobedience of Court orders.
Meantime, the Applicants have notified the Police Service Commission, PSC of their intention to file a N500 billion suit against the Respondents jointly and severally if they continue to disobey the earlier court order which directed them to protect the Applicants from the menace of hired thugs at the sand dredging beaches.
In a pre-action notice just served on both the Chairman of PSC, Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Delta CP, John Oyeniyi, CSP Gladys Imegu (O/C Legal Delta State Police Command), SP Bright Edafe, PPRO, Delta Police Command and Dr. R. O. Ishiguzo, lead counsel to the Respondents, the Applicants said the amount would serve as general, aggravated and exemplary damages to be paid by the Respondents jointly and severally.
In the pre-action notice written on their behalf by their legal counsel, Dr. Enemhinye Ehigiator Esq. Notary Public, dated July 5, this year, the Applicants told the PSC that if upon the expiration of 30 statutory days after service of this notice, their grievances herein remain unaddressed, they shall proceed to institute the intended action without any further recourse to the Commission.
The Applicants stated in the pre-action notice that apart from the N500 billion general, aggravated and exemplary damages which would be claimed jointly and severally against all the Respondents, they would equally add extra amount as additional aggravated and exemplary damages for defamation and costs of the proceedings.
The pre-action notice read in part: “Accordingly, the intended action shall seek among other reliefs: Declaratory reliefs concerning the Commission’s breach of constitutional and statutory duties. Orders holding the Commission jointly and severally liable with the other Respondents for the wrongful acts complained of”.
