A 39-year-old man, Abimbola Adesiyan, has accused the officers attached to the police Special Fraud Unit of disobeying a court judgement ordering the return of his vehicle.
Adesiyan also accused the officers of planning to auction the vehicle despite the court judgement.
According to him, the officers arrested him at his apartment on May 22, 2012, and subsequently impounded his Dodge Ram bus on the instruction of his ex-lover, who is based in the United States.
Adesiyan, who stated that he was the one who gave his estranged lover money to purchase the bus, said the police claimed that he converted her vehicle to his own personal use.
The Oyo State indigene said trouble started when his ex-lover told him to leave his wife in order to marry her, which he said he refused.
He added that while he was at the station, whenever the police put a call across to his ex-lover, she would cut off the line immediately she heard his voice.
He added that when the police refused to return his vehicle or charge him to court for the alleged conversion of the vehicle to his personal use, he filed a suit before a Lagos State High Court in Igbosere seeking the order of the court to direct the police to return his vehicle to him, which he noted was already depreciating in value and in physical appearance in their custody.
Adesiyan said the Commissioner of Police, who was the respondent in the suit, did not appear before the court.
He stated, “I met the lady on Facebook and she told me that her husband was dead; and from there, we started talking and I introduced her to my wife. Our relationship later became intimate; there was a time I wanted to go to Cotonou to buy a car to use for car hire service at the airport and I informed her, but she advised me that instead of going to Cotonou, I should send the money to her and she would help me to buy an auctioned vehicle in the US.
“As of then, I did not have a domiciliary account; so, she sent someone’s account number and I sent the money to the person. I sent over N1,080,000 to the person and she bought the vehicle. When she was coming to Nigeria, she came with the vehicle documents and my former church member cleared the bus for me.
“Throughout the period she was in Nigeria, I was with her till she left. Not up to a month after she got back to the US, she said she wanted to come back because of me, but I told her not to because I am married and that was the genesis of our fight; she started threatening me that my wife must go.”
Adesiyan added, “I was in my house at Sango Ota, Ogun State, when the police came to arrest me and took the bus along; when we got to the station, I was told that I had been accused of illegal conversion of the vehicle. They claimed that I helped the woman cleared the vehicle at the port and that after clearing, I converted it to my personal use.
“They also alleged that I was a clearing and forwarding agent, but I told them that I was not a clearing agent and I told them where I worked, which they later confirmed. The woman later sent someone to tell me that I should go and collect my vehicle from the police, but I said the police would not give it to me if she did not call them.
“After the back and forth, I told the police to charge me to court if they were convinced that I had committed an offence, but they didn’t charge me; so, I approached the state High Court challenging the authority of the police to seize my bus and I got a judgement against the police ordering them to return my vehicle, but the police have refused to return it. The vehicle is there at the SFU in Milverton Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, depreciating.
“An officer at the unit told me that they wanted to auction the bus and I told him that there was a judgement on the vehicle and I gave him a copy of the court judgement.”
The certified true copy of the judgment delivered by Justice Harrison on February 5, 2018, which was made available to our correspondent, showed the order of the court directing the police to return the vehicle to Adesiyan.
The judgment read in part, “There is no pending trial in respect of the vehicle and the applicant presented documentary evidence to show proof of ownership and all the averments were incontrovertible.
“Originating motion succeeds and the court orders that the respondent is hereby ordered to release the vehicle, Dodge Ram bus, with chassis number 553582 and VIN number 2B4HP15XB1K553582, currently in the respondent’s custody on bond to the applicant herein forthwith.
“It is further ordered that the applicant shall produce the vehicle at any time it is required by the respondent.”
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer, SFU, Lawal Audu, said he was not aware of the matter and advised Adesiyan to come to the unit to identify the Investigating Police Officer and necessary action would be taken.
He said, “From what I have been able to gather, I learnt that when he came to the SFU, he was told to provide the names of the officers who participated in the investigation so that they could trace the case file and get the vehicle released from the exhibit keeper. The exhibit keeper is not in charge of vehicle auction; he does not have the power to auction vehicles.
“We need to know the name of the IPO so that we can get the file. Let him come and tell us the name of the IPO in charge of the case, and I will look at the court order he brought and verify if it is genuine or not; if it is genuine, the vehicle will be released to him.”
In this article:
Adesiyan also accused the officers of planning to auction the vehicle despite the court judgement.
According to him, the officers arrested him at his apartment on May 22, 2012, and subsequently impounded his Dodge Ram bus on the instruction of his ex-lover, who is based in the United States.
Adesiyan, who stated that he was the one who gave his estranged lover money to purchase the bus, said the police claimed that he converted her vehicle to his own personal use.
The Oyo State indigene said trouble started when his ex-lover told him to leave his wife in order to marry her, which he said he refused.
He added that while he was at the station, whenever the police put a call across to his ex-lover, she would cut off the line immediately she heard his voice.
He added that when the police refused to return his vehicle or charge him to court for the alleged conversion of the vehicle to his personal use, he filed a suit before a Lagos State High Court in Igbosere seeking the order of the court to direct the police to return his vehicle to him, which he noted was already depreciating in value and in physical appearance in their custody.
Adesiyan said the Commissioner of Police, who was the respondent in the suit, did not appear before the court.
He stated, “I met the lady on Facebook and she told me that her husband was dead; and from there, we started talking and I introduced her to my wife. Our relationship later became intimate; there was a time I wanted to go to Cotonou to buy a car to use for car hire service at the airport and I informed her, but she advised me that instead of going to Cotonou, I should send the money to her and she would help me to buy an auctioned vehicle in the US.
“As of then, I did not have a domiciliary account; so, she sent someone’s account number and I sent the money to the person. I sent over N1,080,000 to the person and she bought the vehicle. When she was coming to Nigeria, she came with the vehicle documents and my former church member cleared the bus for me.
“Throughout the period she was in Nigeria, I was with her till she left. Not up to a month after she got back to the US, she said she wanted to come back because of me, but I told her not to because I am married and that was the genesis of our fight; she started threatening me that my wife must go.”
Adesiyan added, “I was in my house at Sango Ota, Ogun State, when the police came to arrest me and took the bus along; when we got to the station, I was told that I had been accused of illegal conversion of the vehicle. They claimed that I helped the woman cleared the vehicle at the port and that after clearing, I converted it to my personal use.
“They also alleged that I was a clearing and forwarding agent, but I told them that I was not a clearing agent and I told them where I worked, which they later confirmed. The woman later sent someone to tell me that I should go and collect my vehicle from the police, but I said the police would not give it to me if she did not call them.
“After the back and forth, I told the police to charge me to court if they were convinced that I had committed an offence, but they didn’t charge me; so, I approached the state High Court challenging the authority of the police to seize my bus and I got a judgement against the police ordering them to return my vehicle, but the police have refused to return it. The vehicle is there at the SFU in Milverton Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, depreciating.
“An officer at the unit told me that they wanted to auction the bus and I told him that there was a judgement on the vehicle and I gave him a copy of the court judgement.”
The certified true copy of the judgment delivered by Justice Harrison on February 5, 2018, which was made available to our correspondent, showed the order of the court directing the police to return the vehicle to Adesiyan.
The judgment read in part, “There is no pending trial in respect of the vehicle and the applicant presented documentary evidence to show proof of ownership and all the averments were incontrovertible.
“Originating motion succeeds and the court orders that the respondent is hereby ordered to release the vehicle, Dodge Ram bus, with chassis number 553582 and VIN number 2B4HP15XB1K553582, currently in the respondent’s custody on bond to the applicant herein forthwith.
“It is further ordered that the applicant shall produce the vehicle at any time it is required by the respondent.”
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer, SFU, Lawal Audu, said he was not aware of the matter and advised Adesiyan to come to the unit to identify the Investigating Police Officer and necessary action would be taken.
He said, “From what I have been able to gather, I learnt that when he came to the SFU, he was told to provide the names of the officers who participated in the investigation so that they could trace the case file and get the vehicle released from the exhibit keeper. The exhibit keeper is not in charge of vehicle auction; he does not have the power to auction vehicles.
“We need to know the name of the IPO so that we can get the file. Let him come and tell us the name of the IPO in charge of the case, and I will look at the court order he brought and verify if it is genuine or not; if it is genuine, the vehicle will be released to him.”
In this article: