Entertainer and social crusader, as Charly Boy, has sued the Nigeria Police, seeking N500m as compensation for alleged violation of his rights during the Resume or Resign in Abuja.
The 66-year-old had convened the protest to demand President Muhammadu Buhari, who was then on medical vacation in Britain should either resume or resign from office.
In a fundamental rights enforcement suit which he filed before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Maitama, Abuja, on Wednesday, Charly Boy claimed the police attacked him during the protest on August 8, in violation his rights to dignity of the human person, freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.
His lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, in an originating motion dated October 4, 2017, has the Commissioner of Police, FCT Police Command, as the respondent.
Mr Effiong argued that the alleged use of “teargas canisters, water cannon and wild police dogs by the agents and officers of the respondent to attack, harass and disperse the applicant during a peaceful demonstration at the Unity Fountain in Maitama, Abuja on Tuesday, August 8, 2017, is not unjustifiable, illegal, unconstitutional”.
He added that the act of the police constituted “a breach of the applicant’s fundamental rights to the dignity of the human person, freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association and contrary to Sections 34, 39 and 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and Articles 5, 9, 10 and 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap. A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
