By TAIYE AGBAJE

Aggrieved two Nigerian companies and their staff have filed a N1 billion suit against the Inspector-General (I-G) of Police and four others at the Abuja High Court over alleged rights violation and destruction of assets.

The applicants, in the fundamental rights enforcement suit, marked: CV/65/2026 filed by their lawyer, B. S. Akinwumi, accused the I-G and other respondents of unlawfully destroying their assets.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the applicants include two firms; Landseeds Integrated Services Ltd and Ten Thousand Seeds Ltd.

The employees are Gbemileke Abiodun, Akinwale Olabode, Adenike Adesoji, Goodluck Olatunde and Tobi George.

They accused the respondents of unlawfully arresting and detaining them and have continued to threaten them with further arrest, detention and prosecution.

Other respondents joined alongside I-G are the Nigeria Police Force (NPF); Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command; ACP Sadiq Mana, O/C X-Squad, Lagos Police Command and Abayomi Oluwadamilare Sotonade.

The applicants stated that the five staff members were minding their businesses on their desks in the two companies on Feb. 10 when agents of the 1st to 4th respondents (I-GP NPF, Lagos Police Commissioner and Mana) allegedly invaded their offices in gestapo style, destroying the property of the firms, disrupting their business and arresting Abiodun, Olabode and Adesoji (1st to 3rd applicants).

They added that the 4th and 5th applicants (Olatunde and George) were severely injured at the premises of the firms in the course of the invasion and that the 1st to 3rd applicants were bundled away in booth of the invading security agents’ vehicle “in dehumanising manner and were dumped in the cell of the Lagos State Police Command on the 10 day of February 2026.

“On the morning of the 11th February 2026, the first to third applicants were taken to the office of the fourth respondents (Mana), where they were told that the fifth respondent (Sotonade) was the petitioner on whose behest the security agents acted.”

The applicants further stated that they later learnt that it was Sotonade’s complaint that one Olabode John Fatoye collected N23 million from him and some others for some land transactions while being a staff of the 6th applicant (Ten Thousand Seeds Ltd).

They denied being part of the transactions, adding that it was later discovered that those who made payments, paid to the account of another firm, Voyage Integrated Services, owned by one Shakirat Abiodun Abdusalam that has no relationship with the applicants.

The applicants stated that the respondents “are already on the trail of Olabode John Fatoye, and have already charged one of his accomplices, named Adewale Oluwole, before a Lagos State Magistrate Court in Charge No. P/64/2025 and he is currently in detention due to his inability to meet his bail conditions.”

They added that despite the facts that the respondents have identified the alleged culprits; the trio of Olabode John Fatoye, Adewale Oluwole and Shakirat Abiodun Abdusalam; who were said to have collected the money in question, they still detained the 1st to 3rd applicants for three days.

The applicants further stated that although the 1st to 3rd applicants were later released on Feb. 12, the respondents have allegedly persisted in asking the applicants to repay the N23 million to the 5th respondent despite existing evidence that they knew nothing about the land transactions and the payments made.

They denied having any transaction with Sotonade “or any of the individuals whose monies were collected by Olabode John Fatoye and his collaborators, who are the duo of Adewale Oluwole and Shakirat Abiodun Abdusalam.

“The applicants therefore verily believe that it is in the interest of justice that this honourable court intervenes to grant the reliefs claimed in this action and to ensure that the first to fourth respondents do not abuse their investigative and prosecutorial powers.”

They are praying the court to, among others, declare their arrest and detention unlawful, and issue a perpetual injunction to restrain the respondents from further harassing and threatening them with arrest and detention over the issue.

The applicants are also seeking an order, directing the 1st to 4th respondents to pay to them, severally and jointly the sum of N1 billion as damages for the breach of their fundamental rights. (NAN)

Update news