By Joy Eze,Gombe<\/p>\n
The Gombe State Government has secured a court judgment ordering Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), Emmanuel Agene, to pay N3.6 million in outstanding accommodation bills owed to Gombe International Hotel, a government-owned facility.<\/p>\n
The judgment followed a suit instituted by the state Ministry of Justice after Agene allegedly occupied a furnished two-bedroom apartment at the hotel for several months without paying for the accommodation.<\/p>\n
Barrister Haruna Yelma, Director of Legal Drafting at the Gombe State Ministry of Justice, disclosed this while briefing journalists in Gombe.<\/p>\n
Yelma explained that Agene, who was posted to Gombe State in February 2026 and is in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), approached the hotel management for accommodation shortly after his arrival.<\/p>\n
He said that considering Agene’s position, the management offered him a furnished two-bedroom apartment at a discounted rate of between N40,000 and N50,000 per night, instead of the normal rate of about N120,000.<\/p>\n
According to him, the AIG allegedly occupied the apartment for between two and three months without settling the bills, prompting the hotel management to make several attempts to recover the outstanding payment.<\/p>\n
Yelma said the management initially approached Agene to settle the debt but alleged that he became uncooperative and declined to entertain their requests.<\/p>\n
He added that letters were also sent to him through the post, but he allegedly refused to receive the correspondence.<\/p>\n
The legal director said the hotel management subsequently approached the state government, which authorised it to seek the intervention of the Ministry of Justice to recover the money, being public revenue belonging to the people of Gombe State.<\/p>\n
He disclosed that the ministry issued a formal demand notice to Agene, with the outstanding accommodation bill standing at N3,653,000 as of June 2026.<\/p>\n
Yelma said when efforts to serve him with the demand notice proved unsuccessful, the ministry approached the court for an order permitting substituted service.<\/p>\n
The court granted the application, authorising the ministry to paste the relevant court processes at the premises of the apartment occupied by the AIG.<\/p>\n
He explained that the ministry subsequently effected the service and allowed the statutory 30-day period to elapse, but Agene allegedly failed to enter an appearance or respond to the suit.<\/p>\n
According to him, despite being afforded several opportunities to defend himself, the AIG did not take advantage of the opportunities, prompting the court to enter judgment in favour of the state government in October 2026.<\/p>\n
Yelma said the ministry had also sought N800,000 in damages, but the court declined to grant the claim, as well as any additional costs.<\/p>\n
He noted that the judgment covered the outstanding accommodation charges between February and June 2026, although the debt reportedly remained unpaid until the judgment was delivered.<\/p>\n
The legal director further disclosed that Agene vacated the apartment following the judgment.<\/p>\n
However, he said the hotel management subsequently reported that the AIG allegedly left with some of its property, including duvets, bedsheets, cups, kettles and other kitchen utensils.<\/p>\n
Yelma clarified that the ministry had yet to independently verify the allegations concerning the missing items.<\/p>\n
He said the ministry had obtained the approval of the state Attorney-General to formally write to the AIG, demanding payment of the outstanding debt and the return of the hotel’s property.<\/p>\n
According to him, the ministry would consider further legal action, including criminal proceedings, if sufficient evidence emerged to establish a prima facie case of theft against Agene.<\/p>\n
He warned that failure to comply with the demand could compel the government to take further steps to recover its property and protect public revenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Joy Eze,Gombe The Gombe State Government has secured a court judgment ordering Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), Emmanuel Agene, to pay N3.6 million in outstanding accommodation bills owed to Gombe International Hotel, a government-owned facility. The judgment followed a suit instituted by the state Ministry of Justice after Agene allegedly occupied a furnished two-bedroom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19783,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19782\/revisions\/19783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}