Court awards N5m damages against police for illegal detention

A FEDERAL High Court Lagos has awarded N5million damages against the Nigerian Police for violating the fundamental rights of a Lagos monarch, Oba Adeoriyomi Oyebo, the Obateru of Egbin, Ikorodu, Lagos State.

The court also ordered the police to make a public apology to the applicant and that the apology must be published in any of the national dailies within 90 days from the judgment date.

Justice Okon Abang gave the ruling in a fundamental enforcement action filed by the monarch against the police recently.

The court declared that the arrest and detention of the applicant on May 22, 2013 for eights months is unlawful and unconstitutional and a clear violation of the applicant’s fundamental rights as enshrined in section 35(1) of the 1999 constitution, which provides that every person shall be entitled to his personal liberty and no person shall be deprived of such liberty except in the situation permitted by law.

The judge ruled: “The police have failed to establish by credible evidence whether the applicant was invited, arrested and detained for over eight months in accordance with the exception provided under section 35(1)a of 1999 constitution that allows the deprivation of the applicants personal liberty.

“The arrest of the applicant is illegal and unconstitutional as there was no justification for such arrest. No charge has been preferred against the applicant. In fact, the police even abandoned him in prison. The action of the police is reprehensible to the extreme and showed gross disregard for the rule of law.