Land grab or lawless policing? Abuja developer accuses Police of turning courts into a sideshow

Land grab or lawless policing? Abuja developer accuses Police of turning courts into a sideshow

An Abuja-based property developer, Mr. Sally Biose, has dragged the Nigeria Police Force before the Police Service Commission  (PSC), accusing senior police officers of brazen lawlessness, intimidation and a sustained assault on the authority of the courts in a land dispute already drowning in litigation.

In a blistering petition dated February 16, 2026, and addressed to the PSC Chairman, Hashimu Salihu Argungu (rtd), Biose alleged that officers led by ASP Samuel Ugbanawaji of the IGP Monitoring Unit had effectively abandoned policing for vigilantism, unlawfully arresting him, harassing parties and meddling in a matter squarely before multiple courts.

According to the petition, Biose was arrested in Asaba, Delta State, on February 15, 2026, despite not being named in any criminal charge connected to the disputed property. His lawyers described the arrest as a textbook abuse of power, carried out in open defiance of clear police directives that bar involvement in civil land disputes, especially where litigation is already ongoing.

The controversy is linked to a long-running land battle involving Bonatec Nigeria Limited and former Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, with a web of civil and criminal cases pending before the FCT High Court and the Court of Appeal in Abuja. Yet, despite the heavy judicial footprint on the matter, the police allegedly pressed on as if the courts did not exist.

Biose’s legal team further alleged that on October 14, 2024, police officers, allegedly led by ASP Ugbanawaji, supervised the demolition of their client’s property without authorisation from either the Development Control Department or the enforcement unit of the FCT High Court, both of which, the lawyers said, later disowned the operation.

Even more troubling, the petition claimed that police harassment did not stop there. Individuals linked to the dispute, some not named in any charge were allegedly rounded up, arrested and intimidated, while the substantive cases remained before the courts. Biose has since filed a fundamental rights enforcement suit against the police, which is still pending at the FCT High Court.

The petition warned that the actions of the officers amounted to a flagrant violation of the doctrine of lis pendens, which prohibits interference in matters already under judicial consideration, and accused senior officers, including a serving Commissioner of Police, of ignoring repeated PSC directives ordering a halt to police involvement in the dispute.

Biose’s lawyers urged the PSC to step in decisively and discipline the officers involved, warning that the spectacle of armed police overriding courts in civil disputes was fast corroding public confidence in the Nigeria Police Force.

As of press time, neither the PSC nor the Nigeria Police Force had responded to the weighty allegations, leaving unanswered questions about who now enforces the law when the enforcers themselves are accused of trampling it.

Leave your vote

Facebook Comments

News