Moves by Justice Ifeanyi Nweze of the Anambra State High Court to stop a criminal investigation against him has been frustrated by Justice D.A Onyefulu of Onitsha High Court who ruled that the police cannot be restrained from carrying out their constitutional duty.
He also stated that the court cannot interfere in the statutory duties of the police, adding that it is also not the duty of the court to investigate complaints.
Nweze, who is being investigated for alleged forgery and fraudulent conversion of assets by the police, is the administrative judge of Onitsha Judicial Division.
The judge, his wife and seven of his siblings had filed suit number: O/MISC. 315/2019 at an Onitsha High Court on October 23, 2019, seeking an order of perpetual injunction against the Inspector-General of Police, the Commissioner of Police of Anambra State and other police officers.
They sought an order restraining the police from “arresting, detaining, torturing or otherwise infringing on the fundamental rights of the applicants based on a purely civil matter which is the subject of pending litigations.”
The suit came after a piece of land owned by a company was sold without an agreement by the directors and shareholders. Fearing arrest over their alleged roles in the sale of the land, Nweze and others sought protection from the court.
The judge was also a plaintiff in another lawsuit with number O/MISC. 17/2018 in which he was asking the court to quash a police legal opinion that established a prima facie case of forgery and fraudulent conversion of property against him and also for an order restraining the police from arresting or detaining him.
On March 16, 2021, Nweze and other applicants filed a motion attached to suit O/MISC. 315/2019, asking the court for, among other reliefs, an injunction restraining the police from arresting or detaining them pending the determination of the suit.
But on January 21, 2021, Justice S.N Odili of Onitsha High Court dismissed the suit for lacking in merit, stating that the court does not grant orders stopping police investigation of criminal complaints.
Similarly, on February 8, 2022, Justice Onyefulu of the Onitsha High Court restrained the police from arresting, detaining or torturing Nweze and other applicants or otherwise infringing on their fundamental rights on “purely civil matters” but declined to grant a similar injunction on criminal complaints.
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