The governorship aspiration of the immediate past Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of Delta State, Mr. Peter Mrakpor, may be dashed over his involvement in the alleged forgery of a warrant of arrest on his perceived opponent, Olorogun Barr. Kenneth Gbagi.
The warrant of arrest was met to “blackmail” and rubbish the sterling popularity of the former minister of education whom Mrakpor perceived to be a stumbling block to his aspiration.
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, presided over by Justice Taiwo O. Taiwo, marked the warrant of arrest made against the applicant (Gbagi), on 25th September 2020, as Exhibit HAG 3.
According to the judgement paper, the Applicant avers that the 4th Respondent directed the 2nd and 3rd Respondents to investigate him on alleged violation of violence against person’s bill of Delta State retrospectively, which was passed into law on the 7th day of October 2020.
The warrant of arrest has no name of the magistrate that signed it, has no jurisdiction and no one swore to the affidavit, thereby making it a calculated attempt to tarnish the image and derail the governorship ambition of Olorogun Gbagi, a well known Criminologist of repute and former Chairman, Legal Aid Council of Nigeria.
The judgement delivered on the 8th of March 2022, declared that the legal advice by the office of the 4th Respondent in this case, Mrakpor, while he was the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of Delta State, directing the Respondents particularly the 2nd (Commissioner of Police, Delta State and the 3rd Respondent, Hafiz Mohammed Inuwa, and their agents/officers to effect areest on the applicant without reasonable grounds, during the dependency of this suit is or likely to be an infraction and breach of the Applicant fundamental Right to fair hearing, freedom of movement, personal liberty and dignity of human person as provided for in section 34, 35, 36 and 41 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
According to the judgement, “that the attempt to arrest and detain the Applicant indefinitely by the Respondents at the instance of the 4th Respondent in his official and/or personal capacity, on Friday the 25th day of September 2020, or thereafter on the basis of unconfirmed allegations in the social media, about an alleged molestation of workers in his hotel, is a breach or likely to breach the fundamental Right of the Applicant”.
The Judge expressed worry that after the Court issued an order that the applicant should not be arrested and/or detained during the pendency of this suit, the 2nd and 3rd respondents being the office and the occupier of the office respectively, declared the applicant wanted and this can be seen in exhibit B attached to the affidavit in support. The applicant also attached exhibit C which is the charge sheet before the Magistrate Court, sitting in Effurun, wherein certain persons where charged to Court for stealing on the complaint of them management of the hotel owned by the applicant.
It would be recall that the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, ordered the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, Delta State Commissioner of Police, Ari Muhammed Ali, his predecessor, Hafiz Muhammed Inuwa and the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Delta State to publish an unreserved apology through ThisDay Newspapers and Daily Sun for violating the rights of the former minister of education and leading governorship aspirant in the state, Olorogun Barr. Kenneth Gbagi.
The Court also ordered the Respondents in suit No. FHC/ABJ/1267/2020, to jointly and severally pay the applicant, Gbagi, the sum of One Hundred million Naira, (N100, 000, 000.00).
