An Abuja High Court Wednesday ordered the
Inspector General of Police (IG), Mr. Muhammed Abubakar, to pay a suspected
member of the Boko Haram sect, Mohammed Sani Sambo, the sum of
N500,000 as compensation for illegal detention.
Justice S. C. Oriji, sitting at Court No. 16,
Jabi, Abuja, handed down the order in a ruling on the enforcement of
fundamental human rights filed by Wan Mohammed Shehu, on behalf of the
applicant.
Court processes showed that the applicant
was arrested and detained since June 13, 2012 on the suspicion that he was a
member of the proscribed Boko Haram group but he was never charged to
court till date.
The applicant was first detained for about three
weeks in Kaduna where he was arrested at his residence at No. 14 Abdullahi
Balarabe Road, KTC Layout Kawo, before he was transferred to the Special
Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Abuja.
The relatives said they were initially making
contact with him but could not do so later.
Apart from the N500,000 compensation, the court
also declared that the arrest and detention violated the applicant's
fundamental human rights as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.
The court, however, declined to make an order of
perpetual injunction restraining the police from further arresting or detaining
him.
Joined as co-respondents in the suit were the
Deputy Inspector General of Police, Zone 7 A FCT and the FCT Commissioner of
Police.
Source: Thisday
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