A human rights activist, Barr Samuel David has accused the Nigerian police of usurping powers and overstepping its boundary of operations concerning the alleged offenders of COVID-19 funds.
He said the police special fraud unit (PSFU) Sunday Adewosi House 13 Milverton Road, Ikoyi Lagos has taken the duty and operations of other anti-graft agencies over a “petition of criminal breach of procurement, processes, dishonesty, over inflation of fraudulent awards of contacts and exceeding of financial thresholds and 2019/2020 covid-19 intervention fund.”
Barrister David vehemently kicked against the invitation letter signed by the commissioner of Police, CP Margaret A. Ochalla urging the alleged offenders to go to Lagos as a matter of urgency on Thursday, 15th April with relevant COVID-19 documents in their possession.
The alleged offenders who are Medical Directors of many federal health institutions and medical centers across the country the police were accused of overstepping their boundaries by inviting them to Lagos for any kind of interrogation.
David said issues as such should be handled within the statutory bodies with the powers to investigate such within alleged offenders’ respective state or zonal offices of operations.
The urgent law enforcement request by the Nigerian Police in Lagos was said by David during an interview in Abuja that the internally generated issues about the Covid-19 funds cut across every state and should be treated as such not inviting them to Lagos for interrogations.
He accused the Nigerian police of foul play by revealing that the MDs for the past two years have been going to Lagos at the police’s invitation without finding any fault of theirs.
“I suspect something fishy, the interest of the police is not just for investigation or interrogation, maybe something different for their personal interest, if not how on earth will you be inviting people across the country to Lagos for investigation? Is this really the job of our police?” David said
Our correspondent used the number of the CP’s secretary used in the invitation letter to hear the PSFU stand of the Nigerian Police was not been answered.
