THE office of the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Zone 1, Kano has invited a Kano Upper Sharia Court judge to appear before the Zonal Intelligence Department of the zone in connection with a civil case he presided over in his court.
The judge was invited after the restraining order he issued against the police was flagrantly disregarded by them.
This development has irked some lawyers in the state who said it amounts to undermining the judiciary for the police to invite a judge to come and explain a civil case he presided over.
Our investigation reveals that after completing a land inheritance case, the heirs of the deceased in the case decided to sell the subject matter, a land, so that the proceeds cold be accordingly distributed by the court.
Our reporter was told that a prospective buyer indicated interest in buying the land and after some negotiation, a price of was agreed upon. The buyer’s agent removed what he called his commission while the heirs asked him to pay a certain amount they needed to give as alms to their non-heir relations and for the repairs of their family house to their brother, while the remaining amount should be deposited to the Shairah Court account for onward distribution.
All these were done and a sales agreement was signed between the heirs and the prospective buyer.
But as soon as the buyer took possession of the land, some people, suspected to be land grabbers, came to interrupt him, saying the land belongs to them. They reported him, through their own lawyers, to the police at Zone One.
The buyer was invited by the police and so was the representative of the heirs. This development made the buyer lose interest in the land and he called for the sales agreement to be reversed.
One of the heirs said they reasoned with the buyer and agreed to refund the money he paid to them, but they all need sit, reverse their sales agreement and retrieve the writ of possession handed to him before the refund.
The buyer however decided to go to the police at Zone One to lodge a complaint which prompted the invitation of the lawyer to the heirs. He was asked to refund the money paid to his clients, but he insisted that the transaction was done with the knowledge of the court and that it had to be reversed and the court informed before refunds could be made.
The police at Zone One detained the lawyer for hours and coerced him into signing an undertaking to refund the money.
Our reporter was told that the lawyer went to the court a day after to inform the judge that the buyer wants the transaction reversed and his money refunded. He asked the court to restrain the police from interfering in a civil transaction.
The court obliged, issued a restraining order on the police and asked the buyer to come to the court on Thursday, the 20th of March to make his request to reverse the sales agreement and demand for refund.
Rather than comply with the court order, the police at Zone One ignored it and proceeded to make coercive demands on the judge through extrajudicial means.
On Wednesday the 19th day of March, 2025, the police wrote a letter to the Sharia Court of Appeal requesting for the said judge to appear before them at their Zone One office along BUK Road in Kano.
This is what some lawyers have described as an infraction on judicial process by the police.