• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Court orders police to pay nursing mother N5m for illegal arrest, detention

Court remands man over armed robbery

A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the police to pay a nursing mother, Esther Olubode, the sum of N5m for illegal arrest and detention.

Mrs Olubode had instituted the enforcement of her fundamental rights suit against the police and six others for unjust arrest and detention.

The nursing mother, who is a staff of a commercial bank in Abuja, was said to have been arrested and detained by operatives of the anti-robberry squad of the Nigerian Police Force in various Police Stations in Abuja metropolis in 2014.

The respondents in the case are Nigerian Police, Inspector-General of Police, Divisional Police Officer Joseph Popogbo, Investigative Police Officer, Mary Abari, Gobma Anenile, Unity Bank and the Police Service Commission.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Inyang Ekwo, found the respondents liable for engaging in oppressive and arbitrary arrest and detention of the plaintiff.

Although Justice Ekwo agreed that the police under section four of the Police Act have power to arrest and detain suspects in connection with any crime, he however said that the power of arrest was not at large.

The judge held that the arrest and detention of the banker and her movement from one police detention camp to another under the guise of investigation was a clear breach of her fundamental rights especially after the same police had granted her administrative bail that was not breached.

The court further held that the arrest and detention of the nursing mother on six occasions in spite of meeting bail conditions on all the occasions and with extortion of N35, 000 from the plaintiff in the name of bail is a calculated breach of the freedom to liberty of movement by the instrument of power by the police.

Justice Ekwo stated that the respondents clearly breached section 34&35 of the 1999 Constitution which guaranteed the fundamental right to freedom of liberty and human dignity.

The court dismissed the defence of the police that it only invited the plaintiff in line with its power under section four of the Police Act for explanation in the unlawful transfer of N360m from the bank account of a customer, adding that the police was patently biased in the way the investigation was handled, especially when suspects who carried out the alleged crime in similar manner were apprehended by the same police.

“In my view and having reviewed the circumstances of this case, I am of the opinion that police was evasive and went beyond its statutory mandate on how to arrest and detain suspects in an alleged crime.

“There is no justifiable reason to have detained the plaintiff, a nursing mother six times after she had perfected police administrative bail and after the suspects using same method to transfer money illegally from customers’ account in the commercial bank had been apprehended.

“More worrisome is the fact that during the period of detention the respondents extorted N35, 000 from the plaintiff in the name of bail.”

Justice Ekwo therefore declared the arrest and detention of the plaintiff as oppressive, unlawful, arbitrary, unconstitutional and a breach of personal liberty and human dignity of the plaintiff.

He subsequently ordered the seven respondents to pay the plaintiff N5m exemplary damages and 10 percent interest on the amount until the judgment is fully executed.\

 

Felix Omohomhion, Abuja