A High Court sitting in Gudu Judicial Division, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria, has awarded N50 million damages against the Nigerian police for arresting and detaining an activist of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mrs. Ngozi Umeadi.
Nnamdi Kanu’s defence lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, who hailed the judgement on Thursday, said the court also ordered her unconditional release and public apology.
The judgement was handed down by Justice Modupe Osho-Adebiyi of Court No. 28, Gudu Judicial Division, Abuja, in a fundamental rights suit filed to challenge the illegal arrest, torture and continued detention of Mrs Ngozi Umeadi since February 2021.
Justice Osho-Adebiyi declared Ngozi Umeadi’s arrest and continued detention by the Operatives of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Unit, hitherto led by the suspended head, Abba Kyari, as “illegal, and a gross violation of her fundamental Human Rights”.
The Court ordered her “immediate and unconditional release from custody, and consequently awarded exemplary and aggravated damages of N50 million damages against the police as reparation.
The Court further directed the police to “tender an unreserved apology to Mrs. Ngozi Umeadi, which apology will be published in two national dailies”.
Ngozi Umeadi, a nursing mother, was said to have been arrested at a hospital in Onitsha since February 2021.