GIWA vs LMC: Dikko not wanted, says FCT Police

The Chairman of the League Management Company (LMC), Shehu Dikko, on Sunday met with the Police Commissioner of the Federal Capital Territory, Mohammed Mustapha, over repeated harassment and attempted abduction by some Police officers claiming to be executing an arrest warrant.

At the meeting, CP Mustapha of the FCT Command clarified that he had not at any time ordered or directed the arrest of Dikko and LMC Secretary, Salihu Abubakar.

The CP recalled that on the day of the incident, “some persons had approached my office late in the night with a photocopy of an alleged Court order of the Jos High Court which is outside my jurisdiction, purportedly for the committal to prison of Dikko and Salihu Abubakar for contempt of court order in Jos”.

“However, since it had been alleged that the order was against the Chairman and a director of LMC, who are well known public figures”, he merely directed two of his men to take steps to invite them to allow him hear the other side of the matter, pending receipt of legal advise from his unit as the matter evidently arose from a civil suit emanating from the expulsion of Giwa FC from the NPFL.

The CP said that his men have been unable to trace those who presented the said committal order since the event as they apparently supplied misleading information to the Police.

Dikko also at the meeting, clarified, with documentary evidence, that the LMC has filed an appeal against all the three orders made by the Jos High Court in the suit challenging the expulsion of Giwa FC from the League for multiple infractions. Giwa was expelled for refusing to play three commutative scheduled matches within the season.

The LMC boss submitted that in accordance with legal procedures, all parties to the suit are, consequently, now before the Court of Appeal, Jos Division and have duly filed their papers for and against the appeal.

The league boss described the Jos High Court order against his person and Abubakar as oppressive and unjustifiable.

“For instance, an individual with the flimsiest of reason could have obtained a court order to stop Rangers International FC from playing and winning the League title and deny the government and people of Enugu State from celebrating the victory of their team after 32 long years of toiling to lift the trophy. This would be the biggest tragedy in football development for which all stakeholders should stand up to defend the integrity of the game.”

Dikko urged the CP to impress on his men the need to allow the process of the law in the Court of Appeal to proceed unhindered in this matter, so as not to inhibit the jurisdiction of the Court pending the making final orders or judgment in the case, which is totally civil in nature.

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