When Will The Police Vacate Alma Estate?

By Gideon Njoku

May I begin this article by sympathizing with the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu. I never knew him until his appointment. Those who knew him say the man was, always, on the slim side.

In deed, every policeman should strive to be on the slim side. When they are slim, they are smart, and give the impression that they are working hard. And, of course, their uniform sits well on them.

But those who knew Adamu before his appointment say he has really lost more weight. And, no less a person than President Muhammadu Buhari agrees with them.  According to Mr President, Adamu’s weight loss is attributable to his hard work. He thinks Adamu is over-worked.

Many people agree with Buhari. The IGP is not only over-worked, he is supervising  a Force that is under-funded,  and, which, also, lacks  the manpower to do the job. The NPF is over- stretched. It is worsened by the fact that a good number of its officers are engaged in assignments which they ordinarily shouldn’t ve engaged in.

They dabble into issues they ordinarily should not dabble into. A few of the IGP’S subordinates, perhaps, for personal reasons, dabble into issues that have no bearing to their core duties.

In doing so,  they,use their own subordinates to sadly break the law, disobey court orders and, paint the police in very ugly colours.

Most times, because of the IGP’s punishing schedule, he is ignorant of what ”his boys” do, unless briefed properly  by officers and men who wish him well.

In no case has this proven to be true than what is happening at the Alma Beach Estate, Lekki, Lagos.

Adamu may not have had time to be briefed about that estate, or the shocking role some of his subordinates have been playing  there, but perhaps, he has been seeing some  published stories on it, supported by photographs of his men,  guns in hand, supervising the illegal destruction of people’s properties.

And this, in spite of a couple  of Court orders to the contrary.

The beginning of the ‘illegal protection” by the police while people’s properties are being destroyed is a long one. But, whatever, it is a land matter. Police, usually, are not involved in land matters. It is even worse when a valid court order  restrained the Police from doing so.

The questions are: Why is the Police allegedly encouraging the flouting of a Court order? On which Court order is the Police doing that?And on whose authority.

Alma Beach Estate is a sprawling estate which situates along the Lekki Expressway in Ikate, Lagos.  It boasts of about 2,000 plots of land.  According to published materials, Alma Beach Estate Ltd is a registered owner of the estate and, in that capacity, has sold various parcels of land within the estate to different persons at different times. Those who purchased the land had , since, obtained the governor’s consent,  registered title, and are in physical possession of their parcels of land since 1991.

But there has been a nagging problem between Alma Beach Estate Ltd, and Nicon Trustees  Ltd.  Alma  purchased the land from its owners, who had taken some loan from NICON without disclosing same to Alma.

Trouble began many years later when NICON surfaced, flaunting the loan.

On October 26, 2017, NICON obtained an Interim Ex-Parte Order from a Federal High Court to take over and preserve 150  plots of the land. The said 150 plots were not stated in the Ex-Parte order granted by the Hon. Justice C.A. Obiozor. Alma said the order was got through a mis-representation of material facts. For instance, they reveal, there is no registered land survey plan for the 150 plots.

Whatever, Alma challenged the ruling, and on the 22nd of June 2018, the Hon. Justice Faji,  dismissed NICON’s suit on grounds of incompetence and abuse of court processes, and so,  vacated Hon. Justice  Obiozor’s October 27, 2017 ruling. That ruling became null and void.

On the 8th of August 2018, a meeting was held between the two parties before  the Chairman of the Lagos State Task Force on Land Grabbers.

The Chairman warned  representatives of NICON Trustees, who were present, to desist from self -help  and further damage to people’s properties which they had embarked on.

But, they  continued, leading to the arrest, on August 9, by the Police of two representatives of NICON,  Bode Thomas and Abah Onah. They were charged to Court for wilful and malicious damage to properties and forceful entry into land at Alma Beach Estate.

Again, on October 22, 2019, both parties met with the CP, Lagos, and the DCP, Operations for a pre-arranged meeting.

The CP ordered a ceasation of  any action on Alma Beach Estate by the Police.

But that was not to be, as it was revealed that a superior order,  allegedly, came from Abuja, allegedly, again, from the offices of the PSO to the IGP, the CP Legal, and the office of the DIG, FCIID.

On October 29, contrary to the orders of the CP Lagos, armed Policemen were deployed, and watched, as thugs, allegedly deployed by NICON, destroyed people’s properties.

On October 29, 2019, Justice Mohammed Liman, of the Federal High Court, Lagos, also, granted an Interim Injunction, restraining NICON Trustees, the IGP and Abah Onah from taking possession of, or offering for sale, or acting in any manner which is inconsistent with, or capable of interfering with the property and possessory interest of Alma Beach Estate Ltd.

This ruling has continued to be violated.  The Police has continued to occupy parts of Alma, according to allottees and property owners, harassing staff and workers.

The questions are: How can the Police be part of the breaking of the law, and disobedience to Court orders? Who will properly brief the IGP on this impunity? And, when will the Police vacate Alma Beach Estate Ltd? It is becoming embarrassing, especially, when the offices of senior Police Officers are being flaunted.