Dredging: Sand Dealers Urge Police to Obey Court Order in Delta

Yemi Akinsuyi/

Sand Dealers Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society has appealed to the Minister of Police Affairs to direct the Delta State Police Command to obey orders of the Federal High Court judgments and comply with the various directives of the Inspector General of Police on dredging activities in the state.

In a petition to the Minister of Police Affairs dated 12^th September 2019 and signed by the President of the Cooperative, Mbadiwe Ossai, the Cooperative appealed to the Minister to direct the Commissioner of Police Delta State Command to withdraw his men from its operation site and respect court orders and directives from the IGP.

The Cooperative accused the Commissioner in Delta State, Adeyinka Adeleke, of a case of “Flagrant Disobedience of orders of the Federal High Court with impunity, criminal trespass and forceful entry into areas of sand dredging business.”

It alleged that members of the cooperative have been hounded and hunted like common criminals by the police in Delta, since 1999; preventing them from their legal business, adding that the command also allowed non-members to conduct illegal sand dredging activities on the River Niger beaches in Asaba.

The Cooperation cited the legal advice by the office of the IGP dated 3^rd May 2019 in which the AIG Zone 5 Benin and the Delta State Police Command were instructed to obey court order of the Federal High Court of Benin in a Suit No. FHC/B/CS/157/2000, which empowers members of the association to arrest any intruder and charge them to court for conspiracy, forceful entry, attempted murder, amongst others.

In another legal advice dated 26^th July 2019 by the AIG tagged ‘Case of Flagrant Disobedience of orders of the Federal High Court with impunity of criminal Trespass, forceful entry,’ the authorities directed the Delta state commissioner of police to obey the court order.

According to the petition, members of the Sand Dealers Multi-purpose Cooperative Society are Licensees of the National Inland Waterways and their business activities include sand dredging, sand excavation, transportation of goods, fishing, farming, hotel, entertainment at the bank of River Niger in Asaba, Delta State.

It stated that despite all orders given, no action has been taken by the police to abide by the order of the court; that in spite of those four judgments and 22 orders of the court in their favour, the police have done nothing to protect them.

The Cooperative also claimed that “on the 11^th September 2019 our workers went to the beach to resume work but the commissioner of police sent his men to chase us out”.

It stated that “some policemen are permanently stationed in our beaches to protect those who are illegally dredging sand, threatening to arrest our members who dare come close to the beaches”.

According to the petition, eight members of the cooperative along with the president were unlawfully imprisoned in 2011 until they were released in 2018.

It also alleged that four members of the cooperative have been killed as a result of fabricated petitions, adding that several efforts to seek justice have been stopped by the Delta State police command.

It also claimed that a total arrest of 53 members of the cooperative was made. They were allegedly remanded at the federal prisons in Ogwashuku for 38 times by the Delta police  command using the Delta State Ministry of justice to persecute its members through the Attorney General of Delta State

The Sand Dealers  Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society decried the Police inaction and its perceived compromise as the present Delta State Police Commissioner has no intention to carry out the orders of the courts and of the IGP.

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