Court orders police to pay N20m to family of missing cop in Ogun

The National Industrial Court sitting in Ibadan, Oyo State, has ordered the Nigeria Police Force to pay the sum of N20million to the family of a police constable, Emmanuel Gene of the Ogun State police command, Ijebu-Igbo division.

The cop was alleged to have been kidnapped by hoodlums during an operation in Aba-titun village in Ijebu Igbo, Ijebu North Local Government in December 2020.

Gene, whose wife was pregnant at the time, was never found, either dead or alive.

The family in a petition through their counsel, Kehinde Bamiwola in September 2021, called on the police authorities to intervene and find the missing cop, dead or alive.

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The family requested that the commissioner of police in Ogun State, the then area commander of Ijebu-Ode, A.C Abiodun Onuoha, and the DPO, SP Kazeem Solatan, should provide answers to their questions.

When there was no response from the NPF authorities, the family approached the National Industrial Court in Ibadan to seek redress.

The suit no NICN/IB/74/2021 was between Jimoh Gene and Comfort Gene and the Police Service Commission, the Inspector-General of Police and three others.

In the suit, the claimants told the court that the DPO of Ijebu-Igbo at the time of the incident, Kazeem Solatan, “took the missing Emmanuel Gene for land-grabbing operation at Aba-titun, Ijebu-Igbo,” accusing the police of negligence.

In their prayers, the claimants sought that their son be found by the police and N20m paid to the family.

On Thursday, Justice Opeloye A. Ogunbowale, in his judgement, granted the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs, saying he “found the police liable for negligence under the doctrine of Vicarious Liability and that the police exposed Emmanuel Gene to extreme danger.”

The court, therefore, ordered the NPF to “rescue and produce Gene, dead or alive” and that “the sum of N20m be paid to the family with cost of litigation, N300,000 within 30 days of the delivery of this judgement.”