An FCT High Court sitting in Gudu, Abuja has ordered the Inspector General of Police to pay N50m damages to Prof Zainab Abiola, widow of the late politician Moshood Abiola, for violating her fundamental rights.
Justice Modupe Osho-Adebiyi also ordered the police to apologise to her in two national newspapers.
The defendants in the suit are the IGP, the Nigeria Police Force, Inspector Teju Moses and Ibrahim (son of former IGP Usman Baba).
Abiola alleged that in 2022 police officers invaded her residence in Abuja and arrested her in her nightwear and whisked her to the station.
She told the court that she was detained and tortured for three days without trial.
However, the respondents, while urging the court to dismiss the suit, claimed that they did not know her, insisting that the allegation she raised in the suit was false.
However, Justice Osho-Adebiyi held that the detention of Abiola by the defendants without arraigning her in court of competent jurisdiction was a gross violation of her right to personal liberty.
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The judgment seen by PUNCH on Thursday read, “It is hereby declared that the detention of the applicant from the 20th day of September 2022 to 23rd September 2022, without arraigning her before a court of competent jurisdiction is a violation of the applicant’s right to personal liberty under Section 35 of the constitution and is therefore unlawful and unconstitutional.
“It is further declared that the arrest of the applicant by the defendants in her nightgown without giving her the opportunity to dress decently is an infringement of her right to personal dignity. It is more debasing and a further infringement of her right to personal dignity when applicant was paraded in her nightgown. In the circumstances, the sum of N50,000,000.00 only is awarded to the applicant as compensation against the first, second and fourth respondents jointly.
“The respondents are hereby ordered to tender a public apology to the applicant in two of national daily newspapers in pursuance of the provisions of Section 35 (6) I of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).”
Abiola was arrested on the allegation of assaulting her police orderly Inspector Teju Moses on September 20, 2022. Abiola’s domestic employee Rebecca Enechido was also arrested.
