The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) says the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Niger Delta Projects Consortium Limited, Jasper Jumbo, may be bent on frustrating his prosecution by the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali, at a Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt.

Counsel to the Inspector General of Police, Adam Ugwuanyi said this in an interview with Kristina Reports on Tuesday, January 17, 2023 in Port Harcourt.

He predicated his position on the failure of the plaintiff’s counsel, M. Onakpoya, to produce all relevant documents relating to a preliminary objection filed by him before Justice Tamunoigoni Orji at a State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The IGP’s counsel, who stated that, by his observation, this might be the plaintiff’s tactics at delaying the court from going into full trial, further informed that Justice Orji adjourned hearing on the matter to January 31, 2023, assuring that his team would meet up the court’s demand.

“By the grace of God we are going to do a reply to the objection, Yes, I observe that the defense is not ready to allow the court to go into full trial or going into the full substance of the matter.

“If not let’s see the finding of the court and their preliminary objection. We have serious hope that their objections are baseless, but until then the court has the final say on it.”

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) had arraigned Jasper Jumbo before Justice Tamunoigoni Orji of the Rivers State High Court on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 in Port Harcourt in Suit No.: PHC/3117/CR/2022 for forgery, impersonation and false claims..

He pleaded not guilty to the charges and filed objections to his arraignment and the case was adjourned to Tuesday, January 17, 2023 after hearing.

In what appears to be a subtle attempt at delaying or frustrating the case against him, his lawyer, according to Ugwuanyi, provided incomplete documents relating to the preliminary objection he filed before the court and only served the complete documents to him in court on Tuesday, January 17, 2023.

He accused the plaintiff’s lawyer of frustrating the seamless prosecution of his client by refusing to provide the remaining documents, saying that all efforts at getting the documents from Onakpoya proved abortive.

“Actually, why we did not do a reply to the objection was that they served us an incomplete document. We called the counsel, we sent him messages to give us the missing part of the document, he promised but he did not do…”

“It was this morning that they gave us a copy of the affidavit, we even wrote to the court for a CTC, Certified True Copy of that document; the court too was not able to give us, it was this morning he served us, that’s why the court gave us seven days to reply to the document.”

He further explained that, given the preliminary objection filed by the plaintiff, the court must pause and oblige him and if there is no substance to his objection, it would have to continue his trial where the grounds on which the objection was filed is found not to make sense or untrue.

Efforts by Kristina Reports to get the reaction of Onakpoya remained abortive as at the time of this report as he declined speaking to the Press and hurriedly left with his client immediately after the court session.