Ex-Imo commissioner files N5m suit against police for illegal detention

A former commissioner in the cabinet of Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, Dr Fabian Ihekweme, has filed a N5 million suit against the Nigerian Police Force and the Imo State Commissioner of Police at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

The suit alleges gross violations of his fundamental human rights following what he describes as a “Gestapo-style” arrest by the police in Imo State.

In the suit, marked Suit No:FHC/ABI/CS/1809/2024, the plaintiff seeks an order of perpetual injunction restraining the police from further arresting, threatening abduction, detaining, intimidating, assaulting, or harassing him over frivolous and unsubstantiated allegations concerning his fundamental rights to freedom of expression.

He also seeks an order compelling and directing the defendants to immediately release or grant him bail pending investigation or charge him to court, as stipulated in Sections 35(4) and (5) and 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution.

Ihekweme is asking the court to declare his arrest on November 28 in Abuja as strange, intimidating, threatening, embarrassing, bizarre, and constituting an infringement of his fundamental human rights. He also claims his continuous detention by the police amounts to a violation of those rights.

Additionally, he seeks a declaration that the police’s denial of access to his legal team since his arrest violates his fundamental human rights and requests N5 million in damages against the police for alleged harassment, assault, and illegal detention.

In an affidavit of urgency deposed by the plaintiff’s wife, Mrs. Ihekweme Excel Fabian, she stated that her husband is managing a severe health condition and that his continued detention without access to medical care will worsen his health and endanger his life.

“The applicant is now suffering double jeopardy of unlawful detention and an imminent health risk that could endanger his life,” she averred, further noting that the Constitution provides for the right to a fair trial within a reasonable time.

She argued that the applicant should have been released on administrative bail or charged to court within two days of his arrest, as provided by the constitution. She described the respondents’ conduct as arbitrary, illegal, unconstitutional, harsh, oppressive, and void.