The Abuja High Court in Gudu has ordered the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to pay N50million damages to Prof Zainab Abiola, the widow of late Chief M. K. O. Abiola, for arresting and parading her while wearing only a night gown.
In the judgment delivered Thursday, January 18 by Justice Modupe Osho-Adebiyi, the court also ordered the police to apologise to her in two national newspapers.
The police had accused Abiola of assaulting a female police officer, Inspector Teju Moses.
She was alleged to have assaulted the policewoman alongside her domestic staff, Rebecca Enechido, at her residence in the Garki area of the FCT on September 20, 2022.
Mrs. Abiola filed a fundamental human rights enforcement suit marked FCT/HC/CV/2431/2023 against the IGP, the Nigeria Police Force, Inspector Teju Moses and Engineer Ibrahim (son of former IGP Usman Alkali Baba) as co-defendants.
She said that police officers in 2022, invaded her residence in Abuja and arrested her while she was wearing a night gown. 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.
Delivering judgment, Justice Osho-Adebiyi held that the detention of Abiola by the defendants without arraigning her in a court of competent jurisdiction was a gross violation of her right to personal liberty.
The judge held: “It is hereby declared that the detention of the applicant from the 20th day of September 2022 to the 23rd of 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 the applicant was paraded in her night gown.
“In the circumstances, the sum of N50,000,000 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 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).”