By Gbemiga Olamikan.
The Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Dr. Solomon Arase, retired Inspector General of Police has instituted a case at the Federal Capital Territory High Court, a civil action in Suit No. CV/1937/2024 against Mr. Nurudeen Akewushola, Victoria Bamas, Mr. Dayo Aiyetan and Registered Trustees of International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) over a publication published recently.
This was disclosed by Head, Press and Public Relations of Police Service Commission, Ikechukwu Ani in a statement on Friday, May 17th 2024.
Ani said that the matter has been assigned to a court of competent jurisdiction for hearing. Speaking on the action, He said Dr Arase’s Solicitor in his letters to the ICIR team complained of the words written concerning Dr. Arase as being without justification and devoid of truth as the words were calculated to bring him to contempt, ridicule and odium.
Accordingly, the solicitors demanded inter alia, for immediate retraction of the said defamatory publication within a timeline, failure of which the Solicitors notified the recipients of those letters that Dr. Arase would seek redress in court.
Ani revealed that Dr Arase gave his solicitors permission immediately his attention was drawn to the publication to act on his behalf. His solicitors in a letter dated 23rd February 2024 to Mr. Nurudeen Akewushola, Victoria Bamas and Mr. Dayo Aiyetan, the writer, editor and Executive Director respectively, all of ICIR and copies of the letters delivered to them and to the Chairman, Secretary and Members of the Board of Trustees of the company.
He disclosed that, Nigeria Police Force, like other security agencies, are entitled to carry out investigation on any matter which in their opinion has criminal elements, it is pertinent to state emphatically that by the pedigree of the former Inspector General of Police as a Legal Practitioner, Doctor of Philosophy in Law, and currently presiding over the Police Service Commission, he is law-abiding, and has since instituted a civil action to challenge the heinous defamatory words published and concerning him in order to redeem his esteemed reputation by seeking appropriate reliefs.
He assured that Dr. Arase will refrain from publicly discussing this matter in the media or in any other way unlawfully entangling it with police powers.
