Senator Bukola Saraki yesterday obtained an interim injunction restraining the Inspector General of Police, his officers and agents from threatening to arrest him or infringe on his fundamental rights.

The restraining order was sequel to an invitation extended to Saraki by the Special Fraud Unit, SFU, of the Nigerian Police over the controversial N7.5bn loan write-off granted to some of his companies by the former management of Intercontinental Bank Plc.

Saraki had been mandated to appear before the SFU last Friday, but headed to an Abuja High Court yesterday to restrain the police from harassing him.

The motion on notice, which was filed in Federal High Court 4, Abuja by his lawyer, Lawal Raban (SAN) on his behalf, was served and duly received by the Commissioner of Police, Legal yesterday.

A statement by Saraki’s media aide, Akintoba Fatigun said: "As a law abiding citizen, Senator Saraki has decided to seek legal redress to put a stop to what appears an orchestrated frenzy calculated at smear-ing his name, assaulting his dignity and intimidat-ing his person through de-liberately garbled accounts and serial leaks concerning loans granted to a company that he has no rela-tionship with."

Fatigun added that: "Senator Saraki is indeed in receipt of a letter from the Police Special anti-Fraud Unit, Lagos, inviting him to assist its investigations of a case of "conspiracy, forgery and stealing the sum of N21, 000, 000, 000 (Twenty-One Billion Naira) belonging to Joy Petroleum Ltd." Senator Saraki has made it clear on many occasions that he has no relations with Joy Petroleum and wishes to restate so."

"While taking note of and displeased with the tendentious attempts to prosecute on the pages of newspapers, Senator Saraki has asked the court to determine whether he could be invited by the po-lice to assist in investigat-ing a matter in which he is not linked and for which no specific allegation has been made against him," he said.

The substantive suit comes up on Thursday, May 26, 2012.

However, the Police has vowed to vacate the order and follow up with the questioning of the Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment immediately.

While reacting to the latest development, the Commissioner of Police, in charge of the SFU, Tunde Ogunsakin, told National Mirror that he is aware of the latest development but that the police will also go to the court on Thursday to vacate the restraining order and continue with the interrogation of the ex-governor.

"We are aware of the restraining order which he obtained today, but we shall also go to court too. We have rights too under the law to seek vacation of the order. We are going to exercise this option on Thursday when we will go to the court to vacate the order. Our investigation will still continue," Ogunsakin said.