My neighbour lied to the police and my house was searched but nothing was found. Can I challenge it?

The position of the law is that where a person by his complaint set the law in motion against another, he will be liable to that person in court.

Where a police officer searches a premises armed with a search warrant, the person who laid a complaint before the police officer (on the basis of which the police officer lays information before a magistrate to obtain a search warrant) may render himself liable in damages to the person against whom the complaint is laid. The complainant would be held liable in damages for malicious procurement of a search warrant if he had no reasonable cause to believe in the complaint laid by him.

A complainant, who set the law in motion against a person alleged to have committed an offence, may render himself liable in damages to the alleged offender for malicious prosecution. In one case of Balogun v. Amubikahu[1], the Supreme Court rejected the contention of a person and held that although the arrest and prosecution of the respondent were undertaken by the police, the real force behind the whole action was the person. It was him who set the law in motion against the respondent by fabricating a criminal complaint which led to the arrest, detention and prosecution of the respondent.

[1] (1989) 3 NWLR (Pt. 107) 18