A High Court sitting in Ado-Ekiti has ordered the Nigeria Police to pay N1m compensation to Miss Abigail Ige, who was battered by three police officers at the police station inside Fayose Market, Ado-Ekiti in 2010.
The presiding judge, Justice M.O. Abodunde, while delivering judgment in a case filed by the victim, also ordered the police to pay N8,490 which was spent to treat the victim who was on admission for five days at the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti.
A copy of the judgment was made available to journalists in Ado-Ekiti on Friday by the coalition of human rights lawyers who represented the victims in the court.
Ige was a final year student of microbiology at the Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti on June 21, 2010 when she was brutalised by policemen on her way back to school after buying fingerlings needed for her final year project.
Oluwaseyi Ojo of Directorate of Citizens Right, Ekiti State Ministry of Justice, Chairperson of FIDA, Mrs. Toyin Ajibulu; Rita Ilevbare of Community Law Centre; Mrs. Funmi Bello, Olajumoke Olute and As’mau Baderinwa of Legal Aid council represented Ige.
The counsel, in suit no HAD/449M/10, had dragged the Commissioner of Police in the state, and the police officers, Femi Olujuyayetan, Gbenga Babalola and Dupe Emonigbede before the court seeking an order directing the respondents to pay N50m as exemplary damages to Ige for violating her right to personal dignity.
The court dismissed the argument of the respondents and ruled that although the police had the statutory duty to protect lives and arrest persons suspected to have committed crimes, the police officer were simply power-drunk and violated the rights of the applicant.
“I hereby declare that the agony, pain, suffering, inconvenience and the trauma which the applicant had been subjected to by 2nd-4th respondens agents of the 1st respondent is a violation of the applicant’s rights to personal dignity as guaranteed by Section 34 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999,” the judge said. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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I believe N1M is too small to compensate for the humiliation suffered by the victim. Those jerks should be sacked and jailed so they could serve as deterrent to their trigger-happy colleague.
ReplyDeleteNice one. We need more of that.
ReplyDelete