Festus Porbeni, a Port Harcourt-based retired admiral and former Transport Minister, has alerted the highest police authorities in the land to likely breach of peace at a site called B20, Wole Olateju Crescent, off Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase 1, Eti-Osa Local Government Area, Lagos State.

The petition indicated that the breach of peace may arise from alleged breach of court order and use of armed security men to enforce what the petitioner termed wrong order. He said there was urgent need to intervene and avert the impending confrontation.

Festus Porbeni, retired admiral of the Nigerian Navy

Porbeni said he had secured a court order in a Federal High Court, only for another citizen to shop around Lagos high courts and still successfully obtained another injunction on the same matter, counter to a subsisting order. To make matters worse, he said the man behind the new order is using armed security to enforce it.

The Bayelsa-born retired admiral of the Nigerian Navy said he has filed a petition to the IG of Police through his lawyers, Abdullahi Ibrahim & Company Legal Practitioners, in Ikoyi, Lagos, through the office of the Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 2 Command Onikan, Lagos State, in a petition signed on his behalf by Abiodun A. Olatunji, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

In the alert by the lawyers to the IG of Police titled: ‘Petition Against Mr. Donatus Okonkwo and Darabella Limited for Contempt of Court, Abuse of Judicial Process, and Illegal Use of Police Force to Intimidate and Threaten Our Client’, the petitioner said the matter concerned a property known as ‘B20, Wole Olateju Crescent, off Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase 1. Eti-Osa Local Government Area, Lagos State.’

The lawyers gave the background of the crisis, saying it emanated from a pending suit at the Federal High Court: FHC/L/CS/1384/2021 against the Lagos State Government and others, seeking injunctive relief to restrain them from interfering with their client’s possession and ongoing development works on the said land.

The IG was told that on October 18, 2021, the Federal High Court granted an interlocutory injunction restraining the defendants and their agents from disturbing or interfering with their client’s possession pending the determination of the substantive suit.

The IG was further alerted that there has occurred a violation of Federal High Court orders, saying despite this valid and subsisting order, officials of the Lagos State Government, including the Special Task Force, on November 15, 2024, invaded the property.

The petition said the invading team dismantled structures, removed equipment and boats, and unlawfully arrested their client’s workers. “In response, the Federal High Court reaffirmed and reinforced its injunctive orders on November 21, 2024, directing the immediate restoration of our client to possession and warned against further violation.” The petition did not state if the Lagos State government complied with the fresh court order.

The petitioners, however, said while the matter was raging to the full awareness of Okonkwo of Darabella Limited, the same Okonkwo, who had allegedly applied for a joinder in the case without success, proceeded to file a parallel suit on behalf of Darabella Limited at the High Court of Lagos State on December 30, 2024, over the same subject matter. “He thereby engaged in forum shopping and abuse of court process, seeking injunctive relief already being considered in the Federal High Court, the petition alleged.

Porbeni, through his lawyers, said Okonkwo, on behalf of Darabella Limited, secured an interim ex parte order of injunction from the Lagos State High Court on April 7, 2025, purportedly restraining our client from developing or dealing with the property. “However, that order was only served on our client on June 3, 2025, a period of nearly two months after it was obtained.

“Shockingly, in coming to effect service of the said ex parte order, Okonkwo and Darabella Limited mobilised a full contingent of heavily armed mobile police officers, who stormed the property alongside the court bailiffs, thereby creating a hostile, threatening, and intimidating environment for our client’s staff and site workers.”

The lawyers alleged that they have credible information that Okonkwo and Darabella Limited have concluded arrangements to enforce the said interim order of injunction by returning with the same contingent of mobile police officers during the forthcoming Sallah holiday, a time when courts would not be sitting and redress may be difficult to obtain. “This is clearly a premeditated attempt to use state security operatives for unlawful purposes and to evict our client in breach of the Federal High Court’s subsisting injunctive orders.”

Abdullahi Ibrahim & Company, on behalf of the retired admiral, told the IG of Police that the acts of Okonkwo and Darabella Limited, as described above, constitute Contempt of Court: “Their actions amount to a flagrant disobedience of the interlocutory injunction granted by the Federal High Court, which still subsists.”

They quoted Supreme Court position on such situations about use of self-help or extra-judicial force where a court order is in place.

The lawyers also said: “By instituting a new suit in the Lagos State High Court on the same facts and issues pending before the Federal High Court, Mr. Okonkwo is engaging in an impermissible abuse of the court system.

“The deployment of armed mobile police officers to accompany the service of an interim order and the planned enforcement during the Sallah holiday amounts to misuse of police powers, intimidation, and a threat to peace and lawful occupation.”

The retired admiral, through his lawyers at Abdullahi & Company, urged the IG to immediately launch an investigation into the activities of Okonkwa and Darabella Limited regarding their alleged misuse of police personnel to unlawfully intimidate their client.

“To stop any further planned enforcement attempts or police deployments to the property during the Sallah holiday or thereafter without due process or a valid court order issued with notice and compliance with all legal procedures.

“Direct all concerned officers to act strictly in accordance with the rule of law and in deference to the authority of the Federal High Court, which has assumed exclusive jurisdiction over the subject matter.”

The petitioners said the alert was written in good faith to forestall any serious breakdown of law and order and to draw attention to a growing trend of individuals using the machinery of the police to circumvent lawful court processes. “We are confident that your good offices will take all necessary steps to prevent a miscarriage of justice.” (BUSINESS DAY)