http://www.chidigeorge.com/2016/01/italian-nigerian-petitions-ig-alleges.html?m=1





An Italian-Nigerian, Floriana De Stefani, has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, over alleged misuse of the police.
She accused a Lagos family of using the police from the Lion Building Police Division to flout a court order, as well as damaging her property in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the 67-year-old had been living in Nigeria since 1975 and naturalised during the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration.


Our correspondent gathered that De Stefani married an Italian, Lucas Signorelli, who worked with a company, Waterside Properties, located in the Ikoyi area.
Waterside Properties was said to have secured a landed property on Bayo Kuku Road which De Stefani acquired on lease from the firm.
When the company folded up in 1983, our correspondent was told that it owed Signorelli millions of naira and because it could not pay, it gave him the property on Bayo Kuku Road which he passed to De Stefani – his wife.
However, when Waterside Properties lawyer died in 2008, his family allegedly started scrambling for his property and investments.
De Stefani told our correspondent that barely two weeks after her husband also died in 2012 in Italy, the lawyer’s family members went after the property her husband gave her.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the matter was already a subject of litigation at a Lagos State High Court.
De Stefani, however, lamented that she had been chased out of the house even after obtaining a court order asking both parties to maintain the status quo.
The court order, dated November 13, 2013, and issued by Justice K.O. Alogba of the Lagos State High Court, Igbosere, gave an interim injunction forbidding six defendants (family of the lawyer) from “disturbing the peaceful possession and enjoyment of the claimant/applicant property.”
De Stefani said after meeting the police in Zone 2, Onikan, to enforce the court order, “some powerful people from Abuja gave the police contrary orders.”
While threatening to file another suit for the damage to the property, she claimed to have spent over N100m to repair the property, which she said had been forcefully taken again from her.
She said, “The matter started late in 2013. I got a court order restraining them from touching me, the property or my tenants.
“But policemen from Lion Building threw me out. A former senate President, who was a friend to my late husband, learnt about my ordeal and intervened. He called for thorough investigations into the harassment. There was a momentary relief, but soon afterwards, they continued with the harassment.”
De Stefani said she got succour when Joseph Mbu was the Assistant Inspector General of Police, in charge of Zone 2. She explained that Mbu verified her court documents and raided the house and enforced the court order.
“The building had been abandoned for 15 months and I spent about N100m to refurbish it. In April 2015, I rented out some parts of the building to recoup part of the money spent in refurbishing the house. Two policemen from Zone 2 were sent to guard the property,” she added.
However, after travelling to Cuba in October 2015, she said the policemen watching over the house were arrested and detained on the allegation to be fake police officers.
De Stefani said, “I was not around when this happened and I immediately called the new AIG in Zone 2, Mr. Bala Hassan, and he said he was not aware of the arrest.
“On December 12, 2015, I returned to Nigeria and the AIG encouraged me to go to Abuja to find out what happened. We went with a petition.”
The petition, dated December 16, 2015, and addressed to the IG by Lawal Alebiosu of Olalekan Yusuf and Co; said the police were being used to flout a court order.
It read in part, “They have removed all the security men of our client with the aid of unidentified uniformed officers and fierce looking thugs in uniform and they have threatened to engage in self-help to forcefully eject our client and all the occupiers from the premises. These persons have now locked the premises preventing ingress and egress.
“We have written this letter to your highly exalted office to intervene in this matter with a view to conducting necessary investigation and preventing a total breakdown of law and order. We seek the intervention of your formation so as not to give the country a bad image.”
The police from Zone 2, after getting a directive, reportedly raided the house and arrested the guards on December 19, 2015.
The Italian-Nigerian, however, said less than three hours after the suspects got to Zone 2, the police got a call ordering them to release them.
“I am at a loss now because I feel if they could do this to me, despite my son working in the Italian embassy, and my connection to all the foreign companies in Nigeria; what will the ordinary Nigerian be going through? ” she added.
When our correspondent visited the house, he observed some security guards at the gate who claimed to be working for the lawyer’s family.
When contacted, a member of the family, identified only as Ope, refused to comment.
He said, “Whatever she is saying, I am not concerned. Whatever you want to print, print it. Print something libellous and then, I will sue you. I know the owner of PUNCH; I don’t have any issue with that.”
The Zone 2 spokesperson, Lawal Adebowale, said the police only invited the security guards.
He said, “It is a civil matter; the police only came into the matter because we got the information that there could be a breach of the public peace over the property.
“We told the parties to maintain the status quo until the case is decided in court. There was no arrest made. We only invited the guards and told them to maintain the peace.”
The Force Public Relations Officer, Bisi Kolawole, urged De Stefani to go back to Zone 2 if she had any further complaint.
“Let her go back to Zone 2 and tell them what was happening and they will know what to do. Also, tell her to report to the police complaint response unit. The Police will investigate and get back to her,” she said.

she is an attention seeker maggot