By Robert Egbe
An Ondo farmer Chief Franklin Funmi Orunto and the Ondo Commissioner of Police Mr Undie Adie have disagreed over alleged non-enforcement of two high court judgments.
Orunto, 72, alleged that the police have been reluctant to act, despite, according to him, there being no appeal against both judgments.
He claimed that he paid N1.2 million to mobilise Adie’s men to enforce the judgment but nothing was done and the money was not refunded.
But Commissioner Adie denied the allegation and described Orunto’s story as a fabrication.
He said neither he nor any other CP would “stoop so low” as to demand money to enforce valid court judgments.
Orunto made his claims through his lawyer Chief Wale Omotosho, in a February 14, 2020 petition to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP).
Their disagreement concerns judgments by Justice S. A. Ajayi and Justice A. O. Odusola of the Ondo State High Court over land and property ownership in Ondo State.
Both suits, marked HOK/23/1983 and HOK/74/2014, were instituted by Chief Orunto against Omobuwa Akinmose and others and China Railway Construction Company and others.
The petitioner said that the police’s inaction had denied him access to his houses both in Ondo and Okitipupa and his large expanse of farmland.
He alleged that the the police had taken sides with the losing side in both judgments.
He appealed to the IGP to direct the command to enforce both judgments.
He further alleged that the Police wrongly accused him of being behind a recent fracas between the Navy and some members of Okunmo community in Okitipupa, following blockage of the Igbokoda Expressway.
“All necessary court processes that were forwarded to the commissioner, were ignored and the commissioner, in spite of the money…for logistics and other purposes, refused to carry out the execution,”, the petition read.
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But, Adie, who spoke through the Command’s spokesperson, Tee Leo Ikoro, pooh-poohed the allegations.
He wondered how anyone would need to pay money if he had a valid court judgment in his favour.
Ikoro said: “If you win a case in court, do you need to pay somebody to help you to execute that judgment?
“Tell him that the police and the Commissioner of Police Undie Adie will not stoop so low as to go collecting N1million to do a case that a court of competent jurisdiction has decided.
“The police will not condone that and the CP will not descend that low to collect money from him to execute a case decided in his favour.
“It is not true, it can never be true and it will never be true. Not just for this Commissioner, no Commissioner will do that.
“The person himself will know that this case is in my favour and it has been said so by a court of competent jurisdiction, why do I need to pay someone to execute it?
So, there is nothing like that.
“If a court has given a judgment, you don’t need someone to execute that judgment. The court did not say police should execute the judgment.
“This CP won’t do that. He will not rubbish himself with a million naira. He can’t do that. I know him very, very well. Those who know him will tell you if anyone is transparent, CP Adie is one of those transparent people.”
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