Four Abuja-based police officers recently arrested over the alleged extortion of the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) have reportedly retained a team of lawyers to institute legal proceedings against the anti-corruption chief for what they describe as “intentional concealment of material facts.”
Speaking through counsel, the officers insist they are the real victims.
“Our clients merely asked a straightforward question: ‘Who are you?'” the lawyer told journalists. “Instead of truthfully identifying himself as the Chairman of the ICPC, he allegedly responded, ‘I am a law-abiding Nigerian.’ That representation fundamentally altered the entire transaction.”
According to the lawyer, had the Chairman disclosed his official position, “the encounter would have proceeded along an entirely different professional pathway.”
“My clients have built distinguished careers on identifying opportunities with ordinary, law-abiding Nigerians,” counsel explained. “They would never knowingly inconvenience the Chairman of the nation’s foremost anti-corruption agency. That would be highly irregular.”
The legal team further argued that the alleged omission amounted to “misrepresentation by silence,” adding that lying—or failing to disclose material facts—to a police officer should not be encouraged.
The officers are reportedly seeking damages for reputational injury, emotional distress, and “loss of a perfectly ordinary day’s work.”
In an affidavit said to accompany the suit, one of the officers maintained:
“We are disciplined professionals. We do not harass everybody. We have high standards. We focus our attention on law-abiding Nigerians because, in our experience, they are the ones most likely to cooperate.”
Another officer reportedly expressed disappointment that the Chairman “allowed the situation to escalate.”
“He had several opportunities to say, ‘Gentlemen, I head the ICPC.’ Instead, he chose to keep us in the dark. Now the whole country thinks we were doing something improper.”
Yet, another expressed his disappointment at the Chairman’s lack of ethics. In his words, “we are in deep trouble in this country where you have the ICPC Chairman misrepresenting his identity before police officers.”
