Mrs. Ebun Braithwaite-Dosunmu, daughter of late elder statesman and nationalist, Dr Tunji Briathwaite, has dragged the Inspector-General of Police before the Lagos High Court.
In a suit filed on Thursday, June 6, 2019, on her behalf by Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, she is seeking damages for molestation, torture, harassment and unlawful arrest and detention..
Mrs Braithwaite-Dosunmu is seeking a declaration that her arrest and detention at the Bar Beach police station on May 24, 2019, are illegal and unconstitutional.
She is also asking the court to declare that the acts of the policemen in alleged beating, punching and molesting her in an attempt to forcefully abduct her to Abuja, as constituting flagrant infringement of her fundamental rights.
She maintained that the police should not have been involved in a purely domestic family feud in respect of the running of their paper mill company, for which her brother, Mr. Olumide Braithwaite, had allegedly instigated the police to harass and torture her, to the point of endangering her health, leading to her admission in the hospital for treatment.
In a 35 paragraph affidavit deposed in support of the suit, Mrs. Braithwaite-Dosunmu stated in the court case that she is the managing director of the paper mill company that was acquired by their family with their late father, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite and board resolutions were duly passed and contracts signed for the disposal of certain scraps and disused equipment owned by the company, for which she alleged that her brother was seeking kickbacks from the buyer. He would later author a petition to the police containing spurious and unfounded allegations against her, for which policemen from Abuja stormed her mother’s house to demand for her arrest.
It was at Bar Beach Police Station, in Lagos, whilst she was trying to reach her family and friends on her plight that one of the policemen held her hands backwards whilst the other one rained heavy punches on her face and body, molesting and torturing her in the process.
She is thus seeking the following reliefs:
A. A DECLARATION that the arrest of the applicant on Friday the 24th day of May 2019 by the agents, servants, men and officers of the 1st-3rd respondents upon the instigation of the 4th respondent at Bar Beach Police Station, Lagos State, constitutes a flagrant violation of the applicant’s fundamental rights guaranteed under sections 34, 35 and 41 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and Articles 4, 5, 6, 9, 12 and 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap. 10, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 and is therefore illegal, unconstitutional, null and void.
B. A DECLARATION that the assault, torture and detention of the applicant by the agents, servants, men and officers of the 1st-3rd respondents on Friday the 24th day of May 2019 at Bar Beach Police Station upon the instigation of the 4th respondent constitutes a flagrant violation of the applicant’s fundamental rights guaranteed under sections 34, 35 and 41 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and Articles 4, 5, 6, 9, 12 and 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap. 10, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 and are therefore illegal, unconstitutional, null and void.
C. A DECLARATION that the respondents are not entitled in law to arrest, assault, detain, torture, harass, intimidate, embarrass, beat-up or in any other manner restrict the liberty of the applicant on account of any civil and lawful transaction in flagrant violation of the Applicant’s fundamental rights guaranteed under sections 34, 35, 41 and 43 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and Articles 4, 5, 6, 9, 12 and 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap. 10, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990.
D. A DECLARATION that the statutory duties of the 1st-3rd respondents do not cover or extend to intervention in civil transactions willingly entered into by citizens and therefore the arrest, torture, assault, intimidation and detention of the applicant by the respondents over a civil transaction is illegal, unconstitutional and ultra vires the respondent.
E. A DECLARATION that the invitation of the applicant by the 1st respondent in respect and on account of a civil transaction and the threatened infringement of the applicant’s right as guaranteed under sections 34, 35, 41 and 43 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and Articles 4, 5, 6, 9, 12 and 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap. 10, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 is illegal, unconstitutional, null and void.
F. A DECLARATION that the every undertaking that may be forcefully extracted from the applicant by the respondents to issue post-dated cheques or to pay money to any person(s), to surrender any property to anybody and any such money paid or to be paid to any person(s) in respect of any civil transaction is illegal, ineffective, unenforceable, unconstitutional, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.
G. A DECLARATION that the applicant is entitled to her liberty and freedom without let or hindrance from the respondents, their agents, servants, officers or otherwise in exercise of her fundamental rights guaranteed under sections 35, 41 and 43 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and Articles 4, 5, 6, 9, 12 and 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap. 10, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990.
H. AN ORDER OF INJUNCTION restraining the respondents, whether by themselves, their servants, agents, officers or otherwise howsoever from further violating the fundamental rights of the applicant through unlawful arrest, torture, harassment, threat and detention except and in a manner permitted and sanctioned by law.
I. AN ORDER OF INJUNCTION restraining the respondents from executing, enforcing or giving effect to the undertakings that may be forcefully obtained from the applicant or from enforcing or otherwise giving effect to the undertaking that may be extracted from her to issue post-dated cheques or pay money or surrender her property to any person(s) in breach of the fundamental rights of the applicant.
J. N5M (FIVE MILLION NAIRA) being special, aggravated, punitive and general damages against the respondents, jointly and severally for their violation of the applicants’ fundamental rights.
K. SUCH FURTHER OR OTHER ORDER(S) that this Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstances.
The case has not been assigned to any judge.