The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammad Adamu has been summoned by the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Restitution and Inquiry.
Adamu was summoned over a case involving one Adewale Adewuyi; a petitioner whose 26 acres of farmland was allegedly seized by police since 2013.
Debo Adeleke, the petitioner’s lawyer, said that the police had allegedly invaded the farmland located at Age-Mowo; near Badagry on December 17, 2013, and destroyed it.
The development, the counsel said, affected the health status of his client.
The lawyer urged the panel to summon the IGP, adding that his client who was brought on a stretcher could not feed himself after the incident.
Adeleke also said a Federal High Court had in 2017 ordered the police to release the farmland and pay damages for physical assault, adding that the police had refused to release the farmland or engage in alternative dispute resolution.
He said: “That order is needed, although I’m not supposed to say this is a fact-finding panel. We need to summon the IGP, so that he can tell the commissioner of police to release this land to us. They are not using the law, it is just there.
“Everybody fears the Lagos state judicial panel on restitution. We will be grateful if my lord will issue the order.”
However, the police counsel, Cyril Ejiofor, requested two weeks to get the issue resolved.
But chairperson of the panel, Doris Okuwobi, ordered that the parties mentioned in the petition should be served the summons. Thereafter, she adjourned till March 30.
