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Onitsha hotel owner drags Police over alleged refusal to vacate 60-room hotel despite court order, demands IGP intervention and payment of outstanding rent arrears.
An Onitsha-born hotel proprietor, Mrs. Khadijat Lawal, alongside her family, has appealed to the Inspector General of Police, Mr.
Mrs. Lawal also demanded the payment of an alleged outstanding debt of N21,666,667, said to be part of over N50 million owed to her family following the prolonged occupation of the 60-room hotel facility by PMF 54 Squadron, Onitsha, since 2009 without payment.
Speaking with journalists in Onitsha, Mrs. Lawal lamented that the continued occupation of the hotel by the PMF 54 Squadron has caused severe financial hardship for her family and left the once-thriving facility in a deplorable condition.
According to her, the hotel has deteriorated significantly and now requires urgent renovation and maintenance. She accused the MOPOL formation occupying the facility of damaging the property and turning it into an eyesore while frustrating repeated efforts by her family to enforce court directives.
“We have written several petitions to relevant authorities, including the Police Service Commission (PSC), the Force Headquarters legal department in Abuja, and the Anambra State Police Command, demanding payment of the outstanding arrears and execution of the court-issued Warrant of Possession, yet they frustrated all our efforts and intimidated us,” she said.
Mrs. Lawal alleged that despite all lawful steps taken by her family, the PMF 54 Squadron has refused to vacate the premises or settle the outstanding debt of N21,666,667. She further claimed that her family has been denied access to conduct routine inspections of the hotel, contrary to an earlier agreement reached before the property was leased to the State Government for Police accommodation.
The hotel proprietor displayed copies of legal correspondence exchanged between her solicitors, Onyechi Araka and Company, and the Police Service Commission, as well as letters addressed to the Inspector-General of Police and the Commissioner of Police in Anambra State.
Among the documents presented were a Consent Judgment issued by the High Court of Anambra State sitting in Onitsha, dated May 20, 2019, and a subsequent judgment delivered on January 20, 2020, by Justice D.A. Onyefulu.
Explaining how the Police authorities came to occupy the hotel, Mrs. Lawal said the facility was leased to the Anambra State Government in 2008 for use as an operational base for the PMF 54 Squadron, Onitsha, deployed to secure the state-owned Orient Petroleum facilities.
“However, our dispute with the MOPOL formation arose over irregular payment of rent, which prompted my family to institute legal action against both the Anambra State Government and the Nigerian Police Force in Suit No. O/27/2016 before the High Court in Onitsha,” she stated.
“The matter was eventually resolved through an out-of-court settlement whose terms were adopted as a consent judgment by the Court. However, on November 3, 2021, the Anambra State Government proposed to pay N10 million as rent covering April 2021 to March 2022, while also undertaking to vacate the hotel by March 2022.
“We accepted the proposal, but the Mobile Police men remain in occupation of the hotel to date. Following their refusal to vacate the hotel, our legal team approached the court and obtained a Warrant of Possession against them.
“We therefore urge the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Olatunji Disu, to prevail on the PMF 54 Squadron to comply with the Court Warrant of Possession by directing them to vacate the hotel and settle the outstanding arrears in obedience to the orders of the Court.
“We think this is a test case for the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Disu, who has shown that it is no more business as usual in the Nigerian Police, and he should use this case to assure Nigerians that under his leadership, no form of lawlessness, regardless of where it comes from, will be tolerated, not even from within the Force.”
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