Court orders IGP to pay N1m compensation for parading suspect, Victor Ojionu

Justice Zainab Abubakar of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court has ordered the Inspector-General of Police to pay the sum of N1 million as compensation to one Victor Ojionu for parading him before the media.

Justice Abubakar gave the order on Thursday after listening to arguments from parties in the suit. She said a court order must be obtained by the Nigerian police to parade suspects.

She held that the parading of Mr Ojionu in handcuffs, who was detained without a warrant, is in violation of his fundamental human rights.

Recall Mr Ojionu was arrested and paraded on September 17, 2019, by the Police Intelligence Response Team led by Abba Kyari for internet fraud.

He was arrested for allegedly stealing over N500 million within five years.

According to media reports, a victim had alerted the police and EFCC about the withdrawal of millions of naira from his account following the theft of his credit card details.

In a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/01/2020, Mr Ojionu had sued the IGP and the Attorney-General of the Federation in a fundamental human rights suit.

His lawyer, Abubakar Marshal argued that the pre-trial parade of his client was unlawful and a violation of his fundamental human rights since he was yet to be found guilty by a competent court of law.

He sought the court to declare that his pre-trial parade was illegal and void as it violates Section 34 of the constitution and Articles 5 and 6 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.

He also sought among other reliefs, an order compelling the media houses that covered the parade to retract the news item from their platforms.

Ruling on the matter, Justice Abubakar held that the pre-trial media parade of Ojionu was illegal, null and void and in violation of Sections 34 and 36 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, and Articles 6,4,5 and 7 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.

The court also made an order compelling media houses that had covered the parading to pull down the defamatory publications.

The court awarded N1 million in favour of Mr Ojionu for the unlawful violation of his rights