The Court of Appeal has asked the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, to respect court orders directing the police to unseal the corporate Headquarters of the Peace Corps of Nigeria in Abuja.
The Peace Corps of Nigeria HQ has been sealed up for about two years.
Justice Stephen Adah of the appellate court noted that it will be in the best interest of Nigerians that Police, as a law enforcement agency, obey lawful orders of the court.
Justice Adah made the remark while reacting to an allegation made by the counsel to the Peace Corps of Nigeria, Dr Joshua Musa.
Musa had alleged that Police have not obeyed two others of the federal high court that the headquarters of the Corps be unsealed since 2017.
The lawyer complained to a three-man panel of the appellate court justices that the action of Police on the Peace Corps was worrisome because the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, had written to the Police twice directing them to comply with the high court orders and vacate the Peace Corps office.
The Police had laid a siege on the Peace Corps HQ on 28 February 2017. According to Musa, the siege had continued unabated since then. He, therefore, appealed to the Appeal Court to issue an order compelling the Police to obey the high court orders and unseal the Peace Corps office before hearing the Appeal filed by the Police.
Justice Adah, who presided over an appeal filed by Police against the high court judgement, delivered in favour of Peace Corps. He said that it is in the interest of peace and to avoid anarchy that Police should obey court orders.
