A picture has emerged on social media allegedly of a Nigerian police signpost, mounted on the entrance of an apartment, with the caption of the signpost reading; “You are to evict this premises in seven days, by order of the Nigerian police force, Force Headquarters”.
The legal issue that arose out of this incident is; whether the Nigerian police have the power to legally evict a tenant.
The straightforward answer to the issue above raised is typical No. The Nigerian police force or any other law enforcement agency does not have the legal power to issue an eviction notice to anybody or enforce an eviction notice without the order of the court.
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It has been the case that landlords procure police officers and even military officers to forcefully evict their tenants, acts of that nature are not just illegal but also criminal.
This has on numerous occasions been emphasized by the court and even by lawyers that tenancy matters are within the realm of civil suits and police officers or other law enforcement agents have no part in it unless they have been authorized by the court to forcefully eject out a defaulting stubborn tenant.
Let us even assume that the property in question with the police eviction notice belonged to the Nigerian police and they were never procured by an external party to evict the tenant, it is still illegal to issue a tenant a straight up seven days notice to quit and give up possession of a property or to evict a tenant by the order of the police.
Please take note that there is nothing like; quit premises by “Police Order or by military order” known to law in the recovery of premises law or tenancy law; what is rather obtainable is “by court order”. Therefore, if you see the notice pasted “quit premises police order of the police or by military order” as we tend to see often, such notice is illegal and criminal, the law enforcement agency that pastes such notice is merely abusing their powers.
Once a tenant lawfully enters into a property and occupies the property, the procedure for evicting or removing him from that property is strictly regulated by law and if a tenant is forcefully or illegally evicted, that tenant can whip up legal action against the landlord for wrongful eviction and even for trespass.