Judiciary
The Anambra State High Court sitting at Otuocha has ordered the state commissioner of Police and two others to pay the sum of N15m to Emmanuel Chinenye Arinze as damages for infringing on his fundamental rights.
The order followed an application for Fundamental Rights Enforcement made to the court by Arinze through his team of lawyers led by Ilochi Okafor SAN and seven others.
Arinze, in his statement on oath in support of the application, alleged that the officer in charge of Aguleri Police Area Command, Abdu Osu, and another police officer, Sgt. Oviaede Mamode had on December 3, 2018, arrested, tortured, humiliated and detained him in a police cell at Aguleri Area Command till the following day.
He said, “This action by the two officers working as agents of the state commissioner of Police was unconstitutional and a gross violation of his fundamental rights to dignity of human person, personal liberty and freedom of movement, as guaranteed under sections 34,35 and 41 of the 1999 Constitution.”
He prayed the court to declare the action of the officers who are the 1st and 2nd Respondents in the case, as a violation of his fundamental human rights.
The victim further asked the court for an award of damages in the sum of N100million for the breach of his rights.
After due consideration of the Applicant’s claims and counter-affidavit of the respondents, Justice Dilibe Amaechina, the presiding judge, affirmed that the officers actually used force to torture and intimidate the applicant, “who was a young lawyer that went to the Area Command to facilitate an amicable settlement of a land transaction involving his clients.”
Amaechina said the officers in a naked show of power tried to bludgeon the Applicant into submission, by intimidating, torturing, humiliating, assaulting, beating and pushing him inside the police cell.
According to him, the show of power being exhibited by policemen in the country was becoming too frequent and must be discouraged.
“The police authorities must do something about this, as it has the undesirable effect of denigrating the police force in the eyes of the public and eroding the confidence of the people in the ability of the police to protect lives and property”.
The Court therefore ordered the three Respondents, Abdu Osu, Oviaede Mamode, and the commissioner of Police, to pay the Applicant the sum of fifteen million naira as damages for the breach of his fundamental rights.
Pere Oseme, the counsel to the Applicant, expressed satisfaction over the judgement and urged authorities of the Nigeria Police to comply with the court order.
He also charged them to deploy their internal mechanism of discipline to punish those erring officers which would serve as a deterrent to others.
Greg Ofodile, another legal practitioner, described the judgement as “an exemplary act of judicial activism that would go a long way in checking the excesses of policemen in Nigeria.”
He explained that police authorities could pay the judgement sum and later deduct the amount from retirement benefits of those officers involved.
On his part, A.U Abonyi, a law teacher at the Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu University, urged members of the public whose rights have been infringed or likely to be infringed, to approach the courts for redress as the judiciary remained the last hope of the common man. The Nation.
May 9, 2019 @ 16:10 GMT|
Tags: anambra high court police
