Two sons of late Chief Moshood Abiola, winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Kassim and Aliyu, who were arrested and detained over a robbery incident that took place at their father’s residence on September 2, have approached the High Court of Lagos State in the Ikeja Judicial Division for the enforcement of their fundamental rights.
The duo, who applied for the enforcement of their rights to personal liberty, dignity of person, right to private and family life, as well as right to freedom of movement, told the court that they were unlawfully arrested and detained at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Ikeja, following a complaint that was lodged by their step-mum, Mrs. Adebisi Abiola, after the robbery incident.
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The Lagos State Commissioner of Police was cited as the sole Respondent in the suit the Applicants filed through their lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN.
Specifically, they prayed the court to declare that “the arrest without warrant and subsequent and continuous dehumanization and detention of the Applicants since the 2nd September, 2020, by operatives of the Respondent on the alleged Complaint of one Mrs Adebisi Abiola, is illegal, unlawful, wrongful and constitutes a blatant violation of the Applicants’ fundamental rights as enshrined in Section 35 (1) (4) & (6), 37, 41 (1), 44 (1) and 46(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as altered, Sections 2, 3(1) (2), 17(1) (2), 18 (1) (2) (3), 19, 21 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, Lagos State, 2015, and Articles 5, 6 & 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights Ratification and Enforcement Act Cap A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.
“A declaration that the arrest and subsequent dehumanization and the continuous detention of the Applicants since the 2nd September, 2020, by operatives of the Respondent on the alleged Petition/Complaint of one Mrs Adebisi Abiola, without granting them administrative bail within24 hours of their arrest, are illegal, wrongful, unlawful and constitutes a blatant violation of fundamental rights as enshrined in Section 35 (1) (4) & (6), 37, 41 (1), 44 (1) and 46(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as altered, Sections 2, 3(1) (2), 17(1) (2), 18 (1) (2) (3), 19, 21 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, Lagos State, 2015, and Articles 5, 6 & 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights Ratification and Enforcement Act Cap A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.
Aside from demanding for an apology, the Applicants equally asked for an order to compel the Respondent to pay them N100million as exemplary damages for the alleged wanton and grave violation of their fundamental rights.
The Applicants, who are both self-employed, were arrested at their homes by the Police in Lagos State over a robbery incident that was said to have occurred inside premises they share with many other persons.
The Applicants told the court that they were discriminatorily singled out as a result of a complaint by their step mum, which accused them of complicity in the robbery.
They told the court that though Police had since conducted several searches at their apartments, nothing incriminating or connecting them with any alleged stolen item belonging to their step mum was found.
Insisting that they were illegally arrested without warrant, the Applicants maintained that Police lacked the constitutional right to keep them in custody for more than 24 hours without an order of a court of competent jurisdiction.
“That the Applicants were thereafter roughly man-handled and bundled into the operatives’ vehicle and sandwiched between fully armed operatives of the Respondent, while one of them drove them like convicted criminals to the office of the Respondent”.
Describing the suspicion of their alleged involvement in the robbery as “completely false and malicious in its entirety”, the duo said the allegation was “meant to disparage their persons and their immediate nuclear family, not being biological children of the Complainant”.
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