A Customs officer identified as Ritji Stephen Gobak Gomos recently went berserk, defying a valid court order, which stopped him from taking possession of his apartment occupied by one David Afam Akaraiwe and family, including a two-month-old baby, used policemen from ‘B Ops’ of Zone 2 Onikan and some thugs to forcefully evict a tenant at the Devine Estate Amuwo Odofin, Lagos.
And while the horrendous drama was on, the husband of the nursing mother, David Akaraiwe, was out of town.
It was gathered that trouble started with his tenant whose name was given as David Afam Akaraiwe after the customs officer landlord told him to leave his gate open that he was coming to fix an air conditioner at the adjoining apartment adding that Mr. Akaraiwe told him that there was no way he could keep his gate open because that would be a security breach, that if the landlord was around and wants to carry out any repair works on the adjoining apartment, he would gladly open the gate for him. Sources said the response of Mr. Akaraiwe did not go down well with the officer who vowed to eject him.
Subsequently, he served him with a quit notice and later a court Summons was pasted on his gate to appear before Court 4, Apapa, preparatory to his eviction on 3 September 2025.
However, a twist was said to have been introduced into the drama after the landlord ordered his gate man, ThankGod Matthias, minutes after the Summons was pasted on the gate of David Afam Akaraiwe to secretly remove it so that he will not know the date of the court sitting. While doing this, the gate man was caught by a CCTV camera. So, while the court sat severally, Mr. Akaraiwe was not aware and judgment was given against him to quit the apartment.
While court Bailiffs came to execute the order, Mr. Akaraiwe was shell-shocked, questioning when the court sat. His lawyer, Edward Porbeni Esq, quickly went to the same court to pray to the Magistrate, Hon. L. O. Kazeem, that his client was never served a court Summons prior to judgment, adding that his client’s CCTV camera, however, caught the gateman, ThankGod Matthias, removing what seemed to be the court Summons. The Magistrate then gave a counter order forbidding possession order saying that in the interest of justice, he could not grant possession to the customs officer and therefore put in abeyance the application by his counsel. Hearing has been fixed for October 8, 2025.
Angered by the action of the customs officer and his gateman, the Magistrate gave an order for the arrest of the gate man and subsequent arraignment for subverting the cause of justice. Even though the gate man confessed on camera that it was his employer, the customs officer who asked him to remove the summons, his plea was not taken. He is presently remanded in Kirikiri Correctional Centre while the matter has been adjourned to October 20, 2025, for hearing.
However, still holding on to the initial order to quit, Mr. Stephen Gosom went to Zone 2, to seek policemen to help him execute the order. And the officers, instead of going to execute with court Bailiffs, sought the services of thugs to break open and pack out the tenants’ belongings, including forcing the nursing mother out in the cold air and welding the apartment with iron rods.
It was gathered that while the forcible ejection was on, police officers from Area E’ Festac Town, on the order of the DPO, came to the scene to alert the officers from Zone 2 that what they were doing was illegal, as there was a counter court order stopping such. But agents of Gosom carried out the execution, locking the man’s dog tied to a chain inside.
According to some sources, the customs officer has even petitioned the Zonal Intelligence Response Squad ZIRS of the same Zone 2, accusing David Akaraiwe of kidnapping, breaking and entering and stealing, and a letter of invitation to that effect had already been sent to him.
Present Counsel to Mr. Akaraiwe, Barrister Yinka Sanni, who apparently was miffed by the whole scenario, describes the act of Customs officer Gomos as gross abuse of power, vowing to seek redress in a court of competent jurisdiction and claim damages. He said he was already doing a strong-worded petition to the Comptroller General of customs to the effect. “How can a customs officer, trained with the taxpayers’ money, who is supposed to be a custodian of the law, openly violate the law in this manner? He questioned. Continuing, Barrister Sanni added, ”Even the officers from ‘B ops’ of Zone 2, don’t they know that you can not carry out ejection or execution of a valid court order without court bailiffs around, why hire the services of thugs?
The CCTV camera showed that no Bailiff was with them, they only came with thugs to execute a court order that had been set aside. I will sue the organization of this so-called Superintendent of Customs, join him, the Nigeria Police zone 2 and claim damages because my client was illegally detained and his property worth several millions of naira was destroyed. People don’t know that when you throw somebody’s property out illegally, you have literally detained the person. The battle line has been drawn; we will see where it ends between us and this lawless customs officer.”
Calls put to the customs officer on +234 806 579 4596 to hear his side of the matter were rebuffed. He has neither responded to our text message to that effect as of the time of filing this report. Even calls put across to the Customs spokesperson, ACC Maiwada, were not picked up. He too did not respond to our text message as of the time of this report.
