Prof. Zainab Duke Abiola
Rights Violation: Police ordered to pay Abiola’s widow N50m damages
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Gudu, Abuja, has ordered the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to pay N50 million in damages to Prof. Zainab Duke Abiola for violating her rights.
Prof. Abiola is the widow of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (M. K. O.) Abiola.
The police, Inspector Teju Moses, and Ibrahim Baba (son of former IGP Usman Alkali Baba) are the other defendants in the suit.
Mrs. Abiola had alleged the police arrested her in a nightgown, tortured, and detained her.
She claimed that her detention, between September 20 and September 23, 2022 without charge, violated her rights and was unconstitutional.
Justice Modupe Osho-Adebiyi held that the applicant’s detention without arraignment grossly violated her right to personal liberty.
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The judge directed the IGP and the other defendants to tender a public apology to Prof. Abiola in two newspapers.
In the certified true copy of the Enrolled Order, dated: November 29, 2023, which our reporter obtained yesterday, Justice Osho-Adebiyi declared the applicant’s detention from September 20 to 23, 2022 as unlawful and unconstitutional.
She added: “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 nightgown.
“In the circumstances, the sum of N50 million 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 of the 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).”
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