Senior Lawyer Reports PSC Chairman to Tinubu Over Enforcement of Court Order
President Bola Tinubu has been urged to intervene and call the Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Hashimu Salihu Argungu, a retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police, to order over an alleged unlawful attempt to review a court judgment.
In a letter dated January 29, signed by Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Terkaa Aondo, the lawyer petitioned the president to address Argungu’s interference in the enforcement of a judgment from a competent court. The lawyer claims that the PSC chairman unlawfully meddled in a legal case involving the unlawful revocation of a property’s land rights.
The case, marked FCT/HC/CV/330/2018, saw Alhaji Usman Sarahi challenge the illegal revocation of Plot 1798 Cadastral Zone A2, Wuse District, Abuja, which was covered by a Certificate of Occupancy. The court ruled in favor of Sarahi, nullifying the revocation and reallocation of the land. The judgment stated that the revocation without the proper service of a revocation notice was illegal and void.
The court’s judgment was enforced on December 19, 2024, when the occupants were evicted. However, on December 25, 2024, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar and his associates allegedly broke into the property, defying the court order. The matter was reported, and the illegal occupants were evicted again on January 14, 2025. However, allegations arose that Abubakar paid N700,000.00 to a staff member of the Execution Unit of the FCT High Court to stop further evictions, which Abubakar’s lawyer later claimed was an error and had been reversed.
In a surprising development, Abubakar sought an injunction in Suit No. FCT/HC/CV/5699/2024, halting construction on the property, and subsequently petitioned the PSC. As a result, a panel chaired by DIG Argungu (rtd) was set up to investigate the enforcement of the court judgment, despite the fact that the matter was still pending in the FCT High Court.
The SAN’s petition to President Tinubu highlights that despite the case being before the court, the PSC chairman invited Sarahi’s legal team to appear before a panel to discuss issues related to the enforcement of the judgment. During the panel’s sitting on January 27, 2025, the discussions reportedly focused on matters already decided by the court, such as the ownership of the property and the legality of the judgment’s enforcement.
The senior lawyer further emphasized that when counsel attempted to clarify that the matter was already settled in court, the chairman persisted in directing the panel to visit the property, deploying police vehicles and an armored vehicle for the purpose. The SAN expressed concerns over what he described as intimidation and undue interference in judicial matters.
The PSC spokesperson, Ikechukwu Ani, claimed that he was unaware of such a panel being set up.
In his concluding remarks, the SAN warned that it was against the rule of law for a public official to deliberately interfere with the judicial process. He called on President Tinubu to use his authority to hold the PSC Chairman accountable, ensuring that the commission adheres to its lawful mandate.
