- Inspector-General of Police, Adamu Mohammed
A businessman, Mr. Kenneth Amadi, has petitioned the Police Service Commission (PSC) seeking sanctions against the DIG FCID, Mr. Michael Ogbizi, and CP Legal, Mr. Augustine Sanomi, for allegedly withdrawing criminal charges against another businessman, Mr. Chika Ikenga, without due process.
In the December 12, 2019 petition, Amadi alleged that both Ogbizi and Sanomi were colluding with Ikenga in withdrawing the charges the agency preferred against his former boss, and victimizing the petitioner with a dubious fraud case.
He stated that the officers, instead of proceeding with an out-of-court settlement after withdrawing the criminal charge against his former boss, wrote to the Ministry of Justice insisting rather that he be arraigned for a fraud which no investigation had established.
Amadi said that he resigned from Ikenga’s Eunisell Chemicals Limited after 16 years of undented service to set up his own business, which Ikenga deemed a competition and swore to shut down.
According to him, to achieve that end, Ikenga filed various petitions to the police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alleging that he and his wife defrauded Eunisell Chemicals Limited. After investigations, however, both agencies dismissed the petitions, while the police went further to institute a criminal case of forgery against Ikenga, he added.
“As the EFCC was going on with its investigation, the Nigeria Police decided in their wisdom to prefer a charge of forgery against Mr. Ikenga and his cohorts,” Amadi said. “The suit was marked CR/361/18 dated 04/10/18 and filed 05/10/18.”
He told the PSC that though Sanomi was in the police legal department and was part of the report that cleared him of Ikenga’s alleged fraud, “he and Ogbizi caused the charge against Mr. Ikenga to be withdrawn while the counsel who withdrew the charge informed the court that the matter would be settled out of court.
“Rather than proceed with the so-called out of court settlement upon withdrawal of the charge, DIG Ogbizi and DCP Sanomi had written to the Ministry of Justice insisting that I be arraigned for fraud for an offence the police investigation did not disclose.”
According to the petition, the police have neither given reasons for withdrawing the charge against Ikenga nor interrogated or investigated him (Amadi) before this charge, a criminal breach of trust and procedure that he now wants the PSC to investigate and sanction.
