The businessman through his counsel, Ogunlana, scolded the Nigeria Police Force on how it handled civil cases describing it as horrible.
A businessman, Mr Lawal Kazeem Bolanle, has cried out over the constant harassment of his business and his workers by operatives of the Nigeria Police Force who accused him of failing to honour their invitation.
SaharaReporters learnt that the Nigerian police at the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) Ikoyi, Lagos State, extended the invitation to Bolanle on Whatsapp without stating the matter they were investigating or the complainant involved.
It was gathered that when the businessman, through his lawyer and human rights activist, Adesina Ogunlana, made attempts to find out from the police what the invitation was about, they refused to respond.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday in Lagos, the businessman through his counsel, Ogunlana, scolded the Nigeria Police Force on how it handled civil cases describing it as horrible.
Ogunlana appealed to the leadership of the Force to administer honesty and justice in handling civil cases.
The Counsel to Bolanle Lawal said the chamber had written twice to the police as briefed but the response of the police had been to attack the contracts and business of his client.
Ogunlana, a former chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja Branch, said, “This is the family of our client, Mr Lawal Kazeem Bolanle. The said Kazeem is a businessman. This business is financed by loans. The position of our client is that a certain creditor of his years ago has employed the use of the Nigerian police to illegally serve as a debt recovery agent.
“Last week, the police at the FCID, Alagbon, sent by Whatsapp message to our client an invitation, stating thereon that it was a fact-finding mission. The subject matter of the fact-finding was not disclosed in the invitation nor the initiator.
“Our client who is not around required to know the purpose of the police through us, his client. On Thursday last week, one of his workers, a driver was arrested and detained for 24 hours by the police in Alagbon. The police then told them to take him to his boss and that he (our client) was owing N300million. He (the driver) could not help the police in their illegal venture.
“Also, on Friday, a caravan of four tucks conveying IDPs materials to camps in Sokoto and Katsina states was stopped by 4am in Ijebu Ode by the Area command of the police in Ijebu Ode. The vehicles and goods were impounded with the police again demanding for our client from the drivers. Each of the four trucks seized is worth N15million.
“When the contractor of the perishable goods showed up to the police to rescue his goods, the police demanded for the owner of the trucks. He was only allowed to take away the goods, on the condition that he would have to return the truck bodies back to the police.”
The lawyer added, “We will report this matter to the Police Service Commission, there is Police Affairs Ministry, there is Police Commission, I am aware that they have been giving them directives not to be dabbling in this kind of matter. They are now saying while they invited him, he is calling a lawyer.
"Is the police supposed to be the enemy of lawyers and what is so offensive in the letters written? We said, kindly furnish us or even give a date that we will come down you refused to do that. They have not even replied to us at all."