Court Gives Judgement In Nnamdi Kanu’s Appeal | Suicide Bomber’ Detonates Near Mosque

Published by admin on

Court dismisses Nnamdi Kanu’s appeal on unlawful arrest, detention

The Court of Appeal on Monday dismissed the appeal filed by Felix Okonkwo, one of the lawyers to the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu over his unlawful arrest and detention by the Police and the Department of State Services (DSS) .

Justice Okon Abang dismissed the appeal for want of merit.

Delivering judgment, Justice Abang held that the appellant failed to establish miscarriage of justice in the judgment of a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja in the matter.

The appellants comprising of Felix Okonkwo, Ikenna Chibuike and Okafor Ugochukwu had dragged the Nigeria Police Force and the DSS before the high court for the enforcement of their client’s fundamental human rights.

The appellants specifically accused the two security agencies of violating their fundamental rights by their unlawful arrest and detention on September 27, 2021, during which they claimed that they were tortured, harassed and intimidated while in the custody of the Police.

Justice Samaila Bature had, in his judgment delivered on March 24, 2022 found the police liable for the unlawful arrest and detention of the appellants and subsequently imposed a fine of N2 million against Police to be paid to the appellants.

Justice Bature however did not make any order against the DSS because the appellant, then plaintiffs did not disclose any cause of action against the state services.

Not satisfied with the findings and decisions of the high court, the three plaintiffs had approached the Court of Appeal praying for an order to hold that SSS was also culpable in their arrest and detention.

They claimed that the N2 million imposed on the police as fine, was paltry and ridiculously low and asked the appellate court to jerk up the fine as compensation for their unlawful arrest and detention.

In a unanimous judgment by a three-man panel of the appellate court, Justice Abang held that from the video footage tendered as exhibit by the appellants at the trial court, there was no where the operatives of the SSS were found at the scene of their arrest in the house of Ifeanyi Ejiofor in Anambra state.

He disagreed with the appellants in their claims that the N2 million compensatory damages was grossly insufficient.

According to Abang, the decision to award compensatory damages is at the discretion of a Judge and cannot be dictated by any plaintiff or appellant.

In the instant case, Justice Abang agreed with Justice Bature that perculiar facts and circumstances of the unlawful arrest and detention of the appellants were carefully considered at the trial court before arriving at the amount.

Besides, Justice Abang said that the appellants did not point out irrelevant facts in the judgement of the high court and did not also disclose their status in the society, they did not point out their monthly or yearly income and also did not point out what they lost in the course of their detention.

“In my opinion and going by the perculiar facts and circumstances of this case, the N2 million compensation to the appellants was properly awarded.

“I cannot fault the award because the appellant did not give any good reason for them to have been awarded a much higher amount.

Source: The Nation

Two injured as ‘suicide bomber’ detonates IED near mosque in Borno

Two people have been injured after an improvised explosive device (IED), strapped to a suspected suicide bomber, detonated near a mosque in Biu LGA of Borno state.

Speaking with TheCable, Daso Nahum, the state’s police spokesperson, said the incident occurred at about 8 pm on Sunday, when the Muslim faithful were observing their night prayers.

“It was at that time that the suspected suicide bomber came to a popular roundabout near a mosque,” he said.

“We suspect he was heading to the mosque when the IED exploded, killing him

“Two persons were affected and were immediately rushed to the hospital where they are responding to treatment.

“He’s still yet to be identified. We have not confirmed if he’s a suicide bomber but we suspect he was. What we know is that he was carrying an explosive and was close to the mosque.

“A combined team of security personnel were immediately deployed to the scene of the incident to restore normalcy.”

The spokesperson urged the public to be vigilant especially during Ramadan.

“People should make sure that they are vigilant and should not hesitate to report any suspicious moves to the security agencies,” he said.

The incident comes a few weeks after two labourers reportedly lost their lives in bomb explosions at two separate construction sites in Dikwa LGA of Borno.

Source: The Cable

Categories: News

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Avatar placeholder

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Verified by MonsterInsights