A Lagos High Court sitting at Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), on Thursday, stopped the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) from arresting the Elegushi of Ikate Kingdom in Lagos Oba Saheed Elegushi and two others.
Justice Gafar Safari gave the order in a suit by the monarch and two members of the Elegushi royal family – Chief Abdulahi Elegushi and Prince Akeem Elegushi. The complainants accused the defendants of harassment, manhunt and attempt to arrest them over a civil land matter.
The judge ruled the order subsists pending the hearing and determination of a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by them.
Those listed as defendants alongside the police boss are Bela Vista Property and Development Company Ltd; deputy commissioner of police, Kolo Yusuf; DSP Ibrahim Agu; one Supol Udofia and Lagos attorney-general and commissioner for justice as the first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth respondents respectively.
The royal family also accused the respondents of an alleged plot to grab land belonging to the family at the Eti-Osa Local Government Area (LGA).
The applicants alleged that while the suit is pending the defendants resorted to self-help, including by detailing mobile policemen from Mopol 46 to the land with instruction to arrest any member of Elegushi royal family found anywhere on or near the land.
They further accused th IGP of forging a police report that was presented to the court ceding ownership of their land to Bela Vista property.
At the resumed hearing of the matter on Thursday, the monarch and his co-applicants, through their lawyer Adepeju Omotayo, informed the judge the police had sent its personnel to Ikate seeking to arrest them to frustrate the case before the court, an allegation the first respondent’s counsel denied.
The case was adjourned till August 17 for hearing.
