By Ovat Abeng
Philanthropist and the Chief Executive Officer of Blue Shield Security Company Limited (a private security outfit), Chief Jeff Nweke has dragged the Commissioner of Police, Anambra State Command, Mr. Aderemi Adeoye, and two other officers to court for allegedly trespassing into a piece of land situated at The Four Ways Court Estate, in Awka which belonged to him.
Nweke, the plaintiff, also said that the Commissioner, together with his two other officers, DCP Akin Fakorede and Inspector Monday Umana who are defendants, equally violated his rights to acquire and own property in Nigeria as guaranteed in the Nigerian constitution by allegedly forcing him out of his parcel of land.
As contained in the SUIT NO.A/401/2023, filed at Awka High Court on December 19, 2023, Nweke said the parcel of land, Four Ways Court Estate, Awka, which was originally known as Agunogu land belonged to Ezinano community in Awka South local government area of Anambra state, before some indigenes of Enugwu-Agidi started laying claims on the land.
Nweke noted that there was no subsisting court order dispossessing the Ezinano community of their use and stay on the land, adding that Blue Shield Security subsequently deployed some of her men to the said land.
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“Trouble started on 27th day of September 2023, when the police officers, through their agents who were allegedly led by Inspector Umana forced themselves into the duty post of the men of the Blue Shield at the Four Ways Court Estate and without provocation arrested some of their men and took charge of the area.
Nweke maintained that when these were happening, he was in faraway Egypt where he went for a major surgery.
He further stated that since the 28th day of September,2023, the men of the 3rd defendant(Commissioner of Police) had been entering the land with bulldozer while the Enugwu-Agidi people who are at the other side to the land dispute are being protected and given cover by the said men of the police officers, thus, they bulldoze the land and destroyed whatever the men of Blue Shield were protecting.
According to the context of the SUIT in part, “The plaintiff avers that the defendants had through their agents broken into the personal property of the plaintiff where he is developing his personal residence within the Four Ways Court Estate, Awka.
“The plaintiff avers that some parts of his building have been tampered with and or damaged.
“That the land dispute is currently pending at the Supreme Court in Abuja, despite having been informed that the dispute is subjudice, the Commissioner of Police and DCP Fakorede insisted that the land belongs to the Enugwu-Agidi people.”
However, Nweke claimed that the Commissioner of Police and his men should jointly compensate him with the sum of #10million being general damages for wrongfully trespassing into the said land without any legal ground while #18.7million being special damages of his trailer load of 1,800 bags of cement, 3 welding machines, 3 Bulldozer batteries among others, during the course of their trespass.
He also sought for a perpetual injunction restraining the defendants either by themselves or acting in concert with other persons and or through their agents from further trespass on his parcel of land at Four Ways Court Estate Awka.
Similarly, in SUIT NO. FHC/AWK/280/2023, which Nweke filed on 28th day of September 2023, at Federal High Court, Awka, titled: IN THE MATTER OF APPLICATION BY OZO JEFF NWEKE FOR THE ENFORCEMENT OF HIS FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS TO ACQUIRE AND OWN IMMOVABLE PROPERTY IN NIGERIA, declared that the continued inhibition against his entering into his parcel of land at Four Ways Court Estate Awka by the police officers through their agents completely violated his fundamental rights and further sought for #20million compensation for general damages.
