Petition against FCT Police Commissioner to NUJ
C/O Barr. Yusuf Adewale
Suit 14, Kaku Plaza,
Kikuyu Close, Off Nairobi St.
Wuse II, Abuja
30thJan. 2013
The Chairman
Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ)
Abuja Council
NUJ Press Centre.
Utako-Abuja
Sir,
PETITION AGAINST FCT POLICE COMMISSIONER IN RESPECT OF MALICIOUS PERSECUTION, OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE, ILLEGAL ARREST, INVASION OF PRIVACY, ILLEGAL SEARCH OF MY HOUSE, ILLEGAL DETENTION AND ILLEGAL ARRAIGNMENT ON FALSE CHARGES.
I am Simon Imobo-Tswam, 44, pastor, journalist, Benue state indigene and resident of Abuja. And until mid-august, 2012, I was a staff of The Moment newspapers as their pioneer Abuja Bureau Chief.
I resigned my appointment with the organization on 22-06-12, with effect from 31-07-12, and followed this up with two reminder letters and a meeting with the publisher on 10-08-12, asking the company to accept my resignation. (See attached).
The company did not allow me to go until 13-08-12 when it sent its acceptance, but curiously backdated it to 10-08-12, and then stating that the letter took effect from July 31-07-12!
Before the company accepted my resignation (attached), the publisher had promised to pay me my outstandings on a monthly basis. And I was skeptical because if he was not paying staff monthly (having paid salaries last in November, 2011), how could he pay me monthly as a former staff?
But the Admin. Manager advised me to accept the arrangement, since, according to him, “the company is broke.” He, however, advised me (via sms) to insist on management putting the arrangement in writing.
When he subsequently wrote and sent the company's acceptance of my resignation, he did not state the payment terms as he had advised. And in the process of exchanging e-mails with him on why he should follow his advice, he converted the company's ACCEPTANCE of my resignation to DISMISSAL (attached).
It was at this point that I contacted a lawyer who wrote him the Demand Letter; asking him to pay me within 14 days of face litigation. He was also informed that in the interim, I would hold onto the car..
The letter, dated 22-08-12, was copied the FCT Police Commissioner as well as the Director of State Security Service (SSS) (Also attached).
His response was to publish a DISCLAIMER (attached) on me in The Momentedition of 03-09-12 at page 10, and this without a police report.
Sir, consequent upon this, I filed a suit against him and the editor before an FCT High Court, claiming my entitlements of N1.6 million (ie eight months' salary as well as out-of-pocket expenses and unremitted tax deductions from January 2011 to August, 2012). Furthermore, I am also claiming N200, 000 million as damages for libel/defamation by reason of the said illegal disclaimer.
Although since 26-09-12, he has been evading service any time he is in Abuja; my lawyer was considering the options of substituted service or a motion exparte when something else happened.
On 13-13-12, I had cause to write a formal complaint against a police officer with the Galadimawa Police outpost to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Commissioner.
The petition, entitled: THREAT TO LIFE, HARASSMENT, INTIMIDATION AND PERSECUTION BY AN OFFICER OF THE NIGERIA POLICE FORCE WITH THE GALADIMAWA POLICE OUTPOST (NAME UNKNOWN,BUT GSM NO: 08174139017) , was about a police officer, who, while refusing to identify himself, kept inviting me, sometimes at very odd hours, to different police stations in respect of my financial indebtedness (N35, 000) to some people, including one Musa.
Following my petition, one Inspector Abah (gsm: 08035903142), invited me to Command Headquarters on Monday (17th December, 2012).
I went there that day and subsequently again on December 24th, 2012. At the last meeting, the police quickly disposed of my petition without looking at its merits, and turned to the allegation of one Musa that he had been mandated by The Moment newspapers to recover their car in my custody.
I explained to the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), Mr. Abah, that Musa could not be a complainant in the matter as, having properly resigned, and the company having accepted my resignation, the issue of the car was a management matter (both letters attached).
I explained further that besides being a management issue, Musa, a driver with another company, NewsAfrica, could not make a case for The Moment, a different company altogether.
For your information, sir, NewsAfrica is a UK-based company while The Moment is a Nigerian company, and both have different boards and managements. Although NewsAfrica shares the same office with The Moment in Abuja, in Lagos, they have separate offices; with The Moment having its Head-Office at 2, Ramat St., Ogudu GRA, Lagos, while NewsAfrica runs its Nigerian operations from 3/10, Military St,. Onikan, Lagos. And although in Abuja, both companies share the office; it ends there as they operate different imprest accounts, different pay rolls and different managements. This is why as Bureau Chief, I employed all The Moment drivers, but did not employ Musa.
But all these made no impression on the IPO. And it is not as if the purported complainant had a letter of attorney from The Moment! And neither did the IPO, Abah, bother to ask Musa (who was/is impersonating as The Moment staff) to produce his staff (s) Identity Cards or appointment letters to substantiate his claim of dual status as “Chief Driver for The Moment and NewsAfrica.”
Moreover, Mr. Chairman, Sir, I told Mr. Abah, that the matter was in court; that although the publisher was evading service, the lawyer was making moves to effect substituted service or out-of-jurisdiction service.
And upon his request, I furnished him with copies of the writ of summons, the Demand Letter. (Already attached).
But despite all these, Abah ordered me to return the car as well as the lap-top in my custody. However, when we met a senior officer whom they called their Team Leader, the man said since I had sued the company, the police could not force me to return the car; that it was no longer a police matter; that the court should handle it. He even advised me to expedite service on the company.
I left Command Headquarters with the clear understanding that I was at liberty to return the car to the police. By then, we had agreed to meet again on 15-01-13. And the IPO assured me that the publisher would be at the meeting himself. This meeting held on 24-12-12.
Unfortunately for me, my mother died on 02-01-13; and I left for Benue on 09-01-13 for her burial, which slated for 12-01-13. But unknown to me, while I selling my things to raise money for my mother's burial, the IPO, under the Team Leader's instruction, went to court to secure two illegal warrants: one, to arrest me; and the other, to search my house! This was even when they knew we had a meeting for 15-01-13 in his office.
In fact, on 14-01-13, while I was resting at home after the burial and the hectic all-night trip, the police went and invaded the premises of Central Post, a small-time weekly newspaper in Zone 6, where, since late December, 2012, I have been begging for a job. Thanks to this illegal police action, my hopes of getting a job, even on the fringes of mainstream journalism, this January have been dashed: the newspaper's publisher is afraid of further police invasions!
And on Tuesday (15th), I went to Command in the company of my lawyer, only to discover that everything had changed. The Team Leader (who had assured all at the 24-12-12 meeting that this was not a police case) ordered the IPO to arrest me, and the latter later came to my house and searched it, even looking for the car in my deep-freezer!
But before coming to my house in Lugbe, the IPO took me to The Moment office in Area 1, where, leaving me in the car with another police officer, he went into the office to meet the Publisher, Mr. Moffat Ekoriko: to brief him, receive further instructions and collect money for the job.
As it were, The Moment publisher was in town, but not to come to Command as the police had assured me at our 24-12-12 meeting; his coming into Abuja was, besides retrieving his car, to orchestrate my arrest, detention, humiliation and arraignment on trumped up charges.
In effect, even though I was in mourning, even though there was no complainant, and even though the matter was in court, the police took the car and lap-top, clamped me into illegal detention and arraigned me the following day on the trumped up charges of: Criminal breach of Trust and Theft.”
The man, who did not pay me my salary for eight (8) months, was not arraigned for breach of trust; the Commissioner of Police did not arraign, for breach of trust, the man, who deducted my tax (10 per cent of my salary) for almost two years without remitting it to the appropriate government bodies, for breach of trust; it was me he arraigned.
The commissioner of police, who received my lawyer's Letter of Demand (dated 22-08-12) as early as 24-08-12; and who had custody of all the relevant documents, including the writ of summons, my correspondence with The Moment since June 2012, arraigned me for “Theft;” and curiously, not the man who has been stealing government revenue since 2010 (tax deductions, running into tens of millions of Naira, especially with about 300 staff).
Mr. Chairman, sir, this is as unbelievable as it is shocking. If a neighbour or a junior police officer threatens me in the FCT, I can petition him/her to the FCT Police commissioner. But if the FCT commissioner himself becomes my main threat, I am really in trouble. But worse still, sir, if the commissioner willfully truncates justice, joins forces with someone with whom I have sued for over N200, 000 million and arraigns me in court on fictional and malicious charges, I am left with no choice than to call for help. This is the essence of the petition, this SOS, him to you.
The FCT police commissioner may be a powerful man, with the proverbial sword, but you have the pen. I, therefore, appeal to you to use your good position to save me from this grave injustice as both the publisher of The Moment, Mr. Moffat Ekoriko, the fake Moment staff, Musa, and the FCT police commissioner mean to do me great harm.
Specifically, the thrusts of my plea are these:
Use your position/council to cause the commissioner of police (FCT) to withdraw these spurious charges against me.
Join me in pleading with him to return the seized Picanto and lap-top to me so that the Abuja High Court will arbitrate in the civil matter before it.
Plead with the FCT police commissioner to compel the IPO, Inspector Abah, to also return my documents in the said Picanto, which he did not allow me to take out on the day he impounded the car; claiming they were “exhibits:” These include my Driver's Licence, my International Passport, copies of receipts of fuel purchases and those of car repairs. The receipts are very important to me because they form part of what I intend to use to defend myself in my trial before the Gudu Upper Area Court and part of my arsenal in the N200, 00 million civil suit against the publisher of The Moment and two other Defendants. Their loss is grievous damage to me. Besides, if I “stole” the Picanto, I cannot also have “stolen” my receipts or international passport or Driver's licence. This is more so when the passport and Drivers licence.
If you will, also cause him to as well compel the IPO to return my N15, 000 to me. He collected N5000 from me at Command on 17-12-12 and another N10, 000 from me on 15-01-13.
And finally, bear the pressure of your office on the police commissioner to apologise to me in five national newspapers and additionally pay me compensation of N10, 000, 000.00. This is because this illegal arrest, detention and arraignment on trumped up charges is ruining my ministry as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as people cannot comfortably marry the idea of a PASTOR also being a THIEF.
Plus, I just missed a job opportunity with Central Post, and I cannot also engage in media consultancy as people will be wary of dealing with a “thief.
Please, save me, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
Simon Imobo-Tswam