Court hearing has begun in the case filed by the claimant, Lawrence C. Nnoli against Sergeant Sunday Shaibu and the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 2, Onikan, Lagos.

This was after the Magistrate court of Lagos sitting at Ikorodu magisterial district on Monday 11th March 2019 struck out an application for stay of proceedings and also dismissed an application for leave to appeal which were all filed by the defendants against the court’s ruling.

The court has earlier ruled and upheld the argument of the claimant opposing the appearance of one Mr Z. Arekhandia for the defendants. Mr Arekhandia is a policeman and also a lawyer in the legal department of the Nigeria Police Force. The claimant’s argument which the court agreed with and upheld is that the appearance of Mr Arekhandia for the defendants is improper and offends Rule 8 of the Rules of Professional Conduct 2007 which bars lawyers in government employment from acting as counsel to no other person except their employers. The defendants in this case as held by the court are not the employers of Mr Arekhandia and therefore he cannot enter appearance for them.

The facts of the case are that the claimant who is a lawyer visited Zonal Intervention Squad (ZIS) Ikorodu which is under the command of the Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 2, Onikan, Lagos on the 29th September 2017. The visit of the claimant was premised on a frantic phone call he received from his client, Late Mr. Ralph Ihedioha who before his death was arrested on allegations of fraud and was taken from his office to the office of the ZIS.

After receiving the phone call from his client, the claimant went to the office of the Zonal Intervention Squad in Ikorodu to put in legal representation for his client. At ZIS, the Investigating Police Officer, Sergeant Sunday Shaibu while refusing the claimant access to his client assaulted him and called him derogatory names.

Following this incident, the claimant filed an action in tort for assault, battery and defamation against the Investigating police officer and the Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 2. He is seeking an award of ten million naira as damages against the defendants jointly and severally and also a letter of apology.

The matter has been adjourned to 9th April 2019 for cross examination of the claimant

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