….After 16 years’ alleged occupation without pay
NNEWI—An Onitsha-born hotel proprietor, Mrs. Khadijat Lawal, and her family, have called on the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Olatunji Disu, to order the Police Mobile Force to immediately vacate her property, Idoko International Hotel, located at 3-3, Onitsha, in compliance with a court order.
Mrs Lawal equally demands the payment of the alleged outstanding debt of N21,666,667, said to be part of an accumulated N50 million owed to her family over the alleged prolonged occupation without payment for the 60-room hotel facility by PMF 54 Squadron, Onitsha, since 2009.
Speaking with newsmen in Onitsha, Mrs Lawal lamented that the continued occupation of the hotel by the PMF 54 Squadron in Onitsha has resulted in severe financial loss to her family and left the once-thriving hotel in an alarming, deplorable condition.
She said the hotel has deteriorated significantly and now requires urgent renovation and maintenance, accusing the MOPOL formation occupying it of badly damaging the hotel and turning it into an eyesore, while frustrating their repeated efforts to secure compliance with court directives on it.
“We have written several petitions to relevant authorities, including the Police Service Commission (PSC), the Force Headquarters legal department in Abuja, and the Anambra State Police Command, demanding payment of the outstanding arrears and execution of the court-issued Warrant of Possession, yet they frustrated all our efforts and intimidated us.”
Mrs Lawal alleged that despite all lawful steps her family has taken, the PMF 54 Squadron refused to vacate the premises or settle the outstanding bill of N21,666,667 and claimed that her family had been denied access to conduct routine inspections of the hotel, contrary to an earlier agreement reached before the hotel was leased to the State Government for Police accommodation.
The hotel proprietor displayed copies of legal correspondence exchanged between her solicitors, Onyechi Araka and Company, and the Police Service Commission, as well as letters addressed to the Inspector-General of Police and the Commissioner of Police in Anambra State.
Among the documents presented were a Consent Judgment issued by the High Court of Anambra State, sitting in Onitsha, dated May 20, 2019, and a subsequent judgment delivered on January 20, 2020, by Justice D.A. Onyefulu.
Explaining how the Police authorities got hold of the hotel, Mrs Lawal said that the hotel was leased to the Anambra State Government in 2008 for use as an operational base of the PMS 54 Squadron, Onitsha, drafted to secure the state owned Orient Petroleum facilities.
“However, our dispute with the MOPOL formation arose over irregular payment of rent, which prompted my family to institute legal action against both the Anambra State Government and the Nigerian Police Force in Suit No. 0/27/2016, before the High Court in Onitsha.
“The matter was eventually resolved through an out-of-court settlement whose terms were adopted as a consent judgment by the Court. However, on November 3, 2021, the Anambra State Government proposed to pay N10 million as rent covering April 2021 to March 2022, while also undertaking to vacate the hotel by March 2022.
“We accepted the proposal, but the Mobile Police men remain in occupation of the hotel to date. And following their refusal to vacate the hotel, our legal team approached the court and obtained a Warrant of Possession against them.
“We, therefore, urge the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Olatunji Disu, to prevail on the PMF 54 Squadron to comply with the Court Warrant of Possession, by directing them to vacate the hotel and settle the outstanding arrears in obedience to the orders of the Court.
“We think this is a test case for the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Disu, who has shown that it is no more business as usual in Nigerian Police, and he should use this case to tell Nigerians that under him, no kind of lawlessness, no matter where it is coming from, will be tolerated, not even from his constituency”.
