The chairman of the Police Service Commission, PSC, Solomon Arase, has dragged three staff of the International Centre for Investigative Reporting to court for defamation of character.
Ikechukwu Ani, PSC Head of Press and Public Relations, said in a statement on Friday, that the report was a calculated attempt to bring ridicule to Arase.
According to the statement: “The attention of the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Dr. Solomon Arase, CFR, retired Inspector General of Police, has been drawn to reports in the media that the Nigeria Police Force has invited one Mr. Nurudeen Akewushola, a staff of the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), over his published defamatory reports against the person of the PSC Chairman. The invitation was allegedly at the instance of the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC).”
The statement further added that Arase had instructed his solicitors immediately after his attention was drawn to the publication to act on his behalf. It added that his solicitors, in a letter dated February 23, 2024, to Mr Nurudeen Akewushola, Victoria Bamas and Mr Dayo Aiyetan, the writer, editor and executive director, respectively, all of ICIR, and copies of the letters delivered to them and the chairman, secretary and members of the Board of Trustees of the company.
The statement further said: “In the letters, the solicitors complained of the words written about and concerning Dr Arase as being without justification and devoid of truth, as the words were calculated to bring him to contempt, ridicule and odium.”
It said the solicitors demanded, inter alia, immediate retraction of the said defamatory publication within a timeline, failure of which the Arase would seek redress in court.
“Dr Arase has, by a writ of summons dated 22nd day of March 2024 and filed on 5th April 2024 instituted at the Federal Capital Territory High Court, a civil action in Suit No. CV/1937/2024 against Mr Nurudeen Akewushola, Victoria Bamas, Mr Dayo Aiyetan and registered trustees of International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR). The matter has been assigned to a court of competent jurisdiction for a hearing.
“While the Nigeria Police Force, like other security agencies, are entitled to carry out investigation of any matter which in their opinion, has criminal elements, it is pertinent to state emphatically that, by the pedigree of the former Inspector General of Police as a legal practitioner, Doctor of Philosophy in Law, and currently presiding over the Police Service Commission, he is law-abiding and has since instituted a civil action to challenge the heinous defamatory words published and concerning him in order to redeem his esteemed reputation by seeking appropriate reliefs,” the statement outlined.