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In spite of repeated calls by the Inspector
General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, calling on all
police commands in the country to withdraw
mobile policemen serving as personal guards,
a 49-year-old estate consultant based in the
United States of America, Mrs. Toyin Momodu,
has raised the alarm over the invasion of her
property by armed policemen on the
instruction of one of her her tenants, names
withheld.
She alleged that the said tenant is colluding
with a senior police officer, who has
dispatched policemen with guns to the
building for a 24-hour surveillance, “in a
brazen attempt to take over the property from
her.”
The house is a five-apartment building on
Adebola Street, off Adeniran Ogunsanya,
Surulere, Lagos, which Momodu said she
bought from the Lagos State Development and
Property Corporation (LSDPC) 15 years
ago.Momodu is not alone in her fears about
the sudden appearance of policemen.
Other tenants have also expressed fear about
the activities and intentions of the said
tenant, who has mobilized, at least, six
policemen to stay in the compound as his
bodyguards everyday.
Momodu told The Guardian Aproko that she
got hint of the unusual police presence in her
compound some days ago when a tenant sent
her an email to inform her that heavily armed
men had taken over the house.
Explaining how the tenant came to live in her
house, she said: “I rented out all the four
other apartments in the house and left one to
be used by me and my family when we are in
Nigeria. It is fully furnished with a large
generating set. I was advised to sublet it so
that everything would not lie fallow for the
period I am abroad. So, my brother informed
me that he had found someone who, wanted
to rent it for an initial period of three months.
“I didn’t even ask what he did because I
believed his stay was just temporary. We
agreed on the payment of N8,000 per night,
which amounted to N240,000 per month. In
March 2016 when he came, he first paid
N168,000 and later paid N400,000, totaling
N568,000 for 71 days rent.
“But since the last N400,000, he stopped
paying. I called him to find out what was
wrong but he said he promised to pay his
debt, which is now over N2 million. After that,
he issued cheques, which the banks said were
dud. It was after I got wind of the policemen
in my compound that I was forced to come to
Nigeria to find out what was actually going
on.
“When I got back to Nigeria and went to my
house, I asked the six policemen what they
were doing and they said they were guarding
one of my tenants. I have told him to leave my
house. I even told him to forget the money he
owed because I just wanted him out. But he
has refused to move. I am actually afraid of
going into my own home now,” she said.
Momodu said she had reported the matter at
the Bode Thomas Police Division, where the
Divisional Police Officer had ordered the said
tenant to immediately vacate the house. When
The Guardian Aproko visited the house on
Tuesday, two armed police sergeants and a
corporal were sitting in the compound.
One of them, Sergeant Odetola Victor,
challenged why anybody would want to take
the picture of the house while he also
threatened to get The Guardian Aproko
arrested before the intervention of passersby
prevailed.
[b]OUR UNRELIABLE APROKO[/b] reports as he was
going over to investigate the property and saw
what the policemen were doing to The
Guardian Aproko, he just excused himself to
Ozone Cinema at Yaba to watch the latest
Underworld movie, "How much is [color =red]Coolval[/color] paying
me so police can beat and arrest me."
