Unlawful Arrest: Court Slams N250, 000 Fine Against Police
An Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure, the state capital has ordered the Nigeria Police Force to pay a sum of N250, 000 fine for unlawful, unconstitutional arrest and intimidation of a commercial motorcyclist in the state.
The court presided over by Justice Olanrewaju Akeredolu, gave the order following a suit filed Mr. Daniel Olorunyomi in 2016 through his counsel Mr. Akinsola Akintan, for the enforcement of his fundamental rights.
In the suit number: AK/5M/2017, two police officers, one Corporal Kehinde and Mr. Ajayi Adeboye of the A Division Police Station, Akure, were charged from extorting a commercial motorcyclist, Mr. Daniel Olorunyomi in 2016.
Akintan, a human right activist, who demanded the sum of one million Naira as general damages, lamented that the respondents, Ajayi and Kehinde, usually sent officers to carry out indiscriminate and unlawful arrest of motorcyclists to extort money from them.
He told the court that Ajayi insisted that “before he would release the motorcycle, the 2nd respondent demanded for N3, 000 which was negotiated to N2, 500.”
The prosecutor added that the conversation was recorded and that at the station, he was not requested to make any statement and no entry of events leading to the seizure of the motorcycle was entered.
Akintan, who was also awarded N2, 000 cost in his favour, noted that the litigation was meant to pursue unrepentant harassment and intimidation of the general public by law enforcement officers, especially the police.
In his ruling, Justice Olanrewaju Akeredolu declared that the arrest of the applicant on 10/12/2016 and confiscation of his Haojue motorcycle with registration number ABG 876 QE without any unjustifiable reason was unconstitutional.
Akeredolu added that the detention violated the rights of the applicant to freedom of movement, right to personal liberty, right to own property as enshrined in the provisions of Section 35, 41 and 44 of the Nigerian constitution, as amended.
He said, “I hereby order the respondents, jointly and severally to pay the sum of N250, 000.00 only as general damages for the unlawful and unconstitutional arrest of the applicant on 10/12/2016 and detention/confiscation of the applicant’s Haojue Motorcycle with Registration No. ABG 876 QE from the 10th December 2016 to 14th December 2016 without any justifiable reason. ”
