Cort orders Police to pay lawyer N25 million, subject officers to psychiatric test over human rights violation
A Kano State High Court, on Monday, directed the Nigeria Police Force and other relevant police institutions to compel some policemen to mandatory psychiatric examination at any recognized government hospital.
The court said this was necessary in order to ascertain their mental fitness and suitability to continue serving in the Nigeria Police Force.
The policemen involved include Inspectors Ibrahim Muhammad, Musa Adamu and A. A. Audu.
Delivering his judgement in a fundamental human rights case involving a Kano-based lawyer, Alhaji Ibrahim, who was brutalized by the policemen in question in December 2021, Justice Nasiru Saminu, said it was disheartening to find that the police, who are paid to protect people are the ones hurting them.
He was displeased that the police have refused to change despite the fallout of the EndSARS demonstrations across Nigeria which was occasioned by reactions to alleged police brutality in the country.
He therefore ordered all the 10 respondents in the case to jointly and severally pay the applicant the sum of N20 million as compensatory and exemplary damages for the illegal and unconstitutional violation of the applicant’s rights.
Other respondents in the case included the Nigeria Police Force, Kano State Commissioner of Police, Police Service Commission, Inspector-General of Police, Shoprite Holdings Ltd, Ado Bayero Mall, Technocrime Security Limited, and Beverly Development & Realties Ltd.
He also directed them to pay N5 million as cost of filing and prosecuting the case, while asking them to tender a written apology, which should be published in two national dailies circulating in Kano State.
Counsel to the applicant, U. U. Fari, said the case was instrumental in expounding liability in human rights matters, especially as it concerns what he called “virtual presence in the face of infringement of human rights.”
He explained that one of the organisations involved in the case was trying to elude liability by claiming that it was not present when the lawyer was being brutalised, an argument he countered with the provision of section 8(1) of the Anti-Torture Act, 2017 which provides that “A person who actually participates in the infliction of torture or who is present during the commission of the act is liable as the principal.”
He said though the organisation was not physically present at the brutalisation site, they were virtually there by virtue of their monitoring and supervision of what was going on through CCTV cameras that were installed all over the place and they failed to call the culprits to order.
Nigerian Sketch reported in December that Alhaji Ibrahim, a lawyer, was beaten blue-black by some anti-riot policemen and security guards attached to Ado Bayero Mall (Shoprite) along Zoo Road in Kano.
Our reporter went to Kwalli Police Division where the victim was taken after been battered at the Shoprite by the combined brutal forces of trained policemen and almost untrained rented security guards from Technocrime Security Limited.
Nigerian Sketch found one policeman trying to forcefully make the victim sign a plain paper on which the victim’s names were written but without any statement.
The victim was insisting that he will not sign anything and that he would only write his statement when his black eye is clear enough to see.
The applicant told our reporter after the judgement on Monday that “every aggrieved Nigerian whose right has been trampled upon has hope. The courts are the hope of all law-abiding Nigerians.
Asked if he thinks the Nigeria Police Force will comply with the court’s orders, the lawyer said “the Inspector-General of Police has just recently claimed that the institution is improving on its compliance record. I want to take him by his words, until he proves me wrong.”
According to him in his earlier account, the incident that led to the case was that “On the 22nd day of December 2021, I went to Ado Bayero Mall (Shoprite) to have a meeting with the manager of my client who is renting a space in the mall.
“On getting to the gate of the mall, I was stopped by some security personnel that comprise of private security men from Technocrime Security limited some policemen.
“They told me that I cannot go in with my motorcycle, that they only allow customers with cars in. They told me that only staff are allowed in with motorcycles.
“I explained to them that I was not a customer, as I was going there for official purpose because I am the one taking care of legal matters in African Anchor event hall, a tenant in the premises.
“Prior to the 22nd day of December 2021, a similar incident happened when I wanted to go in. The security men told me that I could not go in through the gate after I had explained to them that I was there for official purpose. They told me that I had to go through the other gate. So, I went to the other gate and they directed back to the gate I had left.
“I was denied entrance after they had played around from one gate to the other. So, I took my motorcycle outside and went in.
When I got inside the mall, I met their chief security, one Al-Hassan Audu, and explained my ordeal to him as he apologized and promised to address his men. He gave me his phone number to call him any time I came around and they refused me entrance.
“On that fateful Wednesday, when the security men stopped me from going in after explaining to them who I was and what I was going in to do, I decided to call the chief security who had told me to call him anytime I am around and his men stopped me so that he could talk to them.
“When I brought my phone and was dialing his number, a policeman came to where I was by the side of the road and attempted to take the ignition key of my motorcycle.
“I held my key and asked him why he wanted to remove it. The policeman slapped me.”
“All the security men, about ten or more started assaulting me. They dragged me to a room in the mall where they assaulted me and threatened to kill me.
“One Inspector Ibrahim held my throat and pressed it so hard that I could not breathe for some time.
“He said he was going to kill me and nothing will happen. He boasted that he had killed more than ten persons before and nothing happened. He said I was lucky he was not in uniform and not holding a rifle, he would have shot me dead and nothing would have happened.
“They continued to assault me and gave me a black eye. Inspector Ibrahim was particularly aiming for my throat and eyes while assaulting me. Others used their gun-buts to hit me.
“These who participated in assaulting me are A. A. Audu, Inspector Ibrahim and Musa Adamu.
A management staff at the Shoprite, simply identified as Habiba said at the police division that the gate through which Alhaji Ibrahim was trying to get into their premises has been out of use for some time, blaming him for the assaults he received in the hands of security men.
The Ungogo branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) stood behind the victim, being its member. The secretary of the branch was at the Kwalli police division to ascertain the level of damage done to him.
Sources at the state police headquarters at Bompai and the AIG Zone One office along BUK Road told Nigerian Sketch that the policemen at Shoprite deliberately refused to listen to the advice of their legal officers on phone to desist from assaulting the victim.
SOURCE: Nigerian Sketch
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Cort orders Police to pay lawyer N25 million, subject officers to psychiatric test over human rights violation
Cort orders Police to pay lawyer N25 million, subject officers to psychiatric test over human rights violation
Cort orders Police to pay lawyer N25 million, subject officers to psychiatric test over human rights violation
