Lagos AG Used Forged Documents to Charge Suspect, Police Report Reveals

Chibuzor Oluchi

The Nigeria Police has revealed that Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN) used forged documents to file criminal charges against Managing Director, Master Reality International Concepts Limited, Mr. Lai Omotola.

This was revealed in a letter addressed to the attorney-general April 4 and signed by Head, IGP Monitoring Unit, Nigeria Police Force, ACP Ibrahim M. Musa, saying Omotola was not invited.

The police arrived at this position after investigating Omotola’s complaint against the attorney-general that a criminal charge was filed against him based on a forged police report.

In its two-page letter, however, the police said the unit “is investigating a case of criminal conspiracy, forgery and complaint against police action reported to the Inspector-General of Police by Mr. Lai Omotola of Master Reality International Concepts Limited for forgery in respect of a suit filed at High Court of Lagos State in the Ikeja Judicial Division by the office of Solicitor-General/Director of Public Prosecution, Lagos.”

In its findings, the police claimed that the petition written Adeniyi Odunsi & Co Barristers and Solicitors dated August 11, 2020 against Lai Omotola and Master Reality International Concepts Limited on behalf of Mrs. Olabisi Olatokunbo was not approved by the Nigeria Police Force.

The police, also, revealed that there “is no record of the petition in the office of Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 2, Onikan, Lagos State, where the petition was claimed to have been reported.”

Consequently, the police established that Omotola was denied being invited for the purpose of inquiry; neither was he given the opportunity of writing any statement concerning the allegations raised in the petition.

The police wrote: “Omotola reported a case of forgery at the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Alagbon, Lagos State in respect of a written statement attached to the suit purportedly written and signed by him as claimed by the Investigative Police Office.

“A forensic report from Apex Forensic Science Laboratory Nigeria Limited on the disputed petition investigated by the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), Alagbon, Lagos State, revealed that the compared signatures were not signed by one person.

“In view of the above, it is clear that the matter has become a subject of investigation. While this is submitted for your information and further necessary action, accept the assurance and esteemed regards of the Inspector-General of Police,” the police stated in its letter to the attorney-general.

Omotola had at a recent news conference said it had become apparent to him how the attorney-general had been allegedly hell-bent on using the judiciary to embarrass his person and put him in custody for his own selfish and personal interest.

“On January 20, 2020, I received a call from one of our security men from our property at 63 Iju road, Agege that staff of Lagos State were at our premises demolishing our property. All efforts to stop them came to no avail.

“The next day my attention was drawn to a report where Lagos State Task Force on Land Grabbing demolished the property and had since returned the land to the rightful owner in the person of Mrs. Olatokunbo Williams and that Omotola is a land grabber.

“Upon the receipt of this report, I spoke to the attorney-general of Lagos State drawing his attention to the report and also informing him how our property has been demolished and that the Coordinator of Taskforce on Land grabbing, Mr. Arole Owolabi informed me that it was with his consent that the building was demolished and I would like him to call us together in order to resolve the issue.

“He responded by saying that if he was to call him he was going to deny all I have said and that what I have to do was to file a petition against him. I filed a petition against Mr. Owolabi Arole and the same was delivered to him.

“Upon receipt of the petition by the A.G, I was told that a panel has been set up headed by the Solicitor General Mrs. Titilayo Shitta-Bey. At the meeting Mrs Shitta-Bey said since two persons were laying ownership on the land and they had purchased from different vendors, then it’s an issue of land dispute instead of land grabbing and that parties should go and seek redress in court since the matter is before the court,” he explained.

Omotola added that Shitta-Bey handed over the file to Mr. Adebayo Haroun for further investigation and that he never received a letter from Haroun to bring his witnesses which he obliged.

He said the investigation was completed and that all efforts to get a report of the investigation was to no avail, adding that during the course of awaiting the report, he also filed a petition to zone 2 police command on malicious damage against Arole.

“He was invited by Zone 2 Police Command but he declined to honour the invitation. The investigation at Zone 2 was also stalled. We continued to send letters to get updates on the report to the AG. It is on record we have written the AG 7 times without a response.

“For 18 months, there was no response until March 22 when I received a notice of arraignment from the office of the Department of Public Prosecution at 1.10 p.m on the same day the arraignment was taking place.

“I instructed my lawyer to go to the court. On getting to the court, he discovered that a bench warrant had been issued by Justice Olatunde Oshodi at 11:00 a.m. even before the notice of arraignment was brought to the office.

“On the same day, we requested for the processes filed in the court only to discover that the office of the Attorney General has colluded with one CSP Akinjide Alabi of Zone 2 Police Command to forge my statement in order to develop a charge against me.

“To prove my case, I submitted the statement for forensic at Alagbon FCID and the result came out to be forged. My lawyer, on the forensic report wrote to the AG but the letter was ignored to buttress our claim of conspiracy. I then petitioned the CSP that was used to perpetrate the forgery to the Inspector General of Police.”