- Abuja court has ordered the police to pay a sum of N10m to a businessman
- The money was to be paid to the man for violating his human rights
- The court also stopped the police from further arresting him
The Federal High Court, Maitama Abuja, on Monday, October 15, ordered the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to pay N10 million as compensation to one Aondofa Shenge, for violating his fundamental human rights.
The judge, Justice John Tsoho, in his judgment, also restrained the police from further arrest and detention of Shenge.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Tsoho upheld the prayers of the counsel to the applicant, Matthew Onoja, and dismissed the preliminary objection raised by counsel to the police, Matthew Omosun.
NAIJ.com gathers that Onoja had earlier told the court that his client was arrested by some police officers in Makurdi in August 2017, and held in detention for more than a year without charges.
Onoja said his client who is a businessman, was arrested and detained in the NPF Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) office in Makurdi, until January 2018 when he was formally transferred to Abuja.
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He said when the police failed to release the applicant on bail, the matter was taken to the court. Onoja said the case of fundamental human rights abuse was formally filed in April 2018.
The lawyer maintained that the case was filed to challenge the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and his deputy on arrest and detention of the applicant from August 2017 until date.
He said the matter first came up on April 20, before the court went on vacation, and the respondent did not file any process, even after the vacation. Onoja said this further led to adjourning the case until October 3 for hearing.
He said: “On that date, we indicated our interest to go on with the matter since we had already filed our processes but counsel to the NPF said he was not ready.'’
He also said that counsel to the police, Omosun told the court that he was yet to file his processes, working behind the scene to ensure that the applicant was granted bail.
He said that as the case progressed, counsel to the police later filed application for preliminary objection; which the court dismissed on point of law.
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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that An Abuja high court had ruled that the Nigerian Police Force must compensate Adebayo Eric Edun, a graduate of Computer Science from the Federal University of Technology, Minna, with the sum of N6 million for unlawfully detaining him for 39 days.
The court also ruled that the force must publicly apologize to the applicant in one national newspaper for his unlawful arrest and detention.
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Source: Naija.ng