Court Orders Police To Pay ₦15m To Suspected ‘Boko Haram’ Members

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the Nigeria Police Force to pay a sum of ₦15m million to suspected Boko Haram members in detention.

The court judge, Justice M.O Olajuwon ruled that the criminal suspects were unlawfully detained for three years without trial, hence the force violated their human rights.

Naija News understand that the suspected terrorists were apprehended at a popular market in Maiduguri, Borno State capital three years ago.

They were allegedly dumped at the detention facility of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) at Abbatoir in Abuja.

The federal high court today held that the detention of the detainees for three years without trial contravened the provisions of the 1999 constitution on human rights.

According to Olajuwon, the police acted in bad faith in keeping the suspects beyond the period required by law especially when there was no cogent and verifiable ground of indictment of the applicants for any offence.

He stressed that their detention was illegal, unlawful, and unconstitutional and consequently ordered that the seven applicants be released forthwith to their families.

Olajuwon ordered that each applicant be paid a sum of ₦2 million as damages for their unlawful detention and another ₦10 million as the cost of litigation that brought about the judgment.

In his remark, Counsel to the applicants, Mr. Peter Aboh praised the judge for ordering the immediate release of his clients. He said that the detainees were unjustly labelled as Boko Haram suspects by police to justify the unlawful detention.

The lawyer revealed that an Abuja-based Non-Governmental Organization, Dayspring Life Foundation, stumbled on the victims while in detention and took over the sponsorship of the litigation free of charge to rescue them from the claws of police and unlawful detention.

Naija News understands the applicants are Ajiri Bulama Dungus, Gudja Giddah, Adam Mohammed, Wardi Dungus, Fanami Mustapha, Mohammed Abba, and Makinka Alhaji Dungus.