The battle for justice, which
started since last year, has finally come to an end.
A Superintendent of Police, Sunday Okpe, who
was the Officer in Charge of Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS), Awkuzu was
among those alleged to have illegally arrested a business tycoon, Ugochukwu
Oraefo and extorted him. The court ordered the policemen to pay Oraefo
compensations.
In landmark judgment, an Anambra High
Court sitting in Ogidi, Idemili Local Government Area ordered operatives of the
Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) to pay the sum of N5 million as compensation
to an Onitsha businessman, Ugochukwu Oraefo for extortion, illegal arrest,
unlawful detention and torture.
Oraefo who is an Onitsha based businessman was
sometimes in 2019 whisked away from his factory by SARS operatives from Awkuzu
and unlawfully detained. He was later extorted N6m.
The business tycoon, through his lawyer, the
Executive Director of International Human Rights and Equity Defence Foundation
(I-REF), Justus Ijeoma, instituted a fundamental right enforcement action
against the respondents.
The plaintiff had prayed the court to award N100m
against the policemen as compensation for the unlawful detention, torture and
other breaches of Oraefo’s fundamental rights.
The plaintiff also prayed the court to direct the policemen
to tender a written apology which will be published in a very conspicuous page
in two daily national newspapers.
Justice E.S Nri-Eze in his judgment on March 5, 2019
held that the policemen failed to prove that the arrest, detention, and torture
of the Oraefo were justified in law as the applicant had adduced credible and
sufficient evidence to prove that his fundamental rights were violated.
Nri-Eze said: “I hold that the applicant’s
fundamental rights were grossly abused and violated when the policemen
subjected him to such cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment and torture. It
was wrong, unconscionable and I dare to say a gross abuse of office for the
respondents to subject the applicant to such inhuman treatment merely to
intimidate and extort such huge amount of money from the applicant.”
He added: “The respondents are hereby restrained
from further harassing the applicant. The respondents are hereby ordered to
tender a written apology to the applicant, either collectively or individually
published in a very conspicuous page in two daily Newspapers circulating
nationwide. I award the sum of N5, 000,000 against the respondents jointly or
severally as exemplary and /or aggravated damages for the unlawful violation of
the applicant’s fundamental rights.”
Justice E.S Nri-Eze also awarded N100, 000.00
against the respondents jointly or severally. Oraefo’s trouble started in 2013. He deals on long
Span Aluminum roofing sheets and accessories.
Ijeoma explained that sometime in
2013, his client started receiving frightening phone calls from an unknown
person.
The client explained: “The caller
threatened to visit me and my family with all manner of violent attacks. He
threatened to kidnap and assassinate me. He made it clear that my wife,
children and I were being trailed. On several occasions, the caller would call,
telling me the exact place I was, what I was doing and what I was wearing.”
The caller told Oraefo that any
attempt to report the matter to the police would worsen his situation. It was a
period of psychological and mental torture for Oraefo and his family
Oraefo recalled: “The caller said
that he was going to wipe off my entire family if I didn’t pay N50million.”
Oraefo reluctantly went into
negotiation with the caller and finally paid N20million. He thought the matter
was buried and forgotten until April, 30, 2018, when three armed men stormed
his factory and attempted to bundle him into a Toyota Camry car. The three men
were dressed in plain clothes.
Oraefo, thinking they were
kidnappers or assassins raised the alarm, attracting attention of his wife,
factory workers and passersby.
Oraefo said: “It was at that point
they told me that they were policemen from Awka. I asked to see their
identity card and also sought to know why they wanted to abduct me in such a
manner. This infuriated them and they started beating me, trying to force me
into their car. They threatened to shoot me.”
When Oraefo’s wife noticed that the
situation was snowballing, she called Ijeoma, unfortunately the lawyer was in
Netherland.
The policemen took the victim to
their station at Awkuzu, where they inflicted injuries on him through torture
as they tried to force him to accept being a criminal.
Oraefo said: “At their station, I
was taken to their torture chamber, where I was hanged for close to an hour
until I passed out and was later revived. They first brought two blank sheets
of papers for taking statement and forced me to sign them before they started
torturing me.”
The lawyer said: “The officers
claimed that someone reported a case to them against the victim, making
reference to the encounter between the victim and the self-acclaimed criminal
(caller). The SARS men held the victim in their custody from April 30th
to 5th of May. Every explanation made by the victim to them that he
was a victim in the hands of those criminals fell on deaf ear. The victim even
promised to provide them with the bank account details of the criminals, into
which he paid part of the ransom money, but they policemen didn’t bother to
make any effort at arresting the criminals. Rather, they continued to torture
and threaten the victim that they were going to kill him unless he paid them
the sum of N20m. Their only interest was to criminally fleece out as much money
as possible from the victim.”
Before Ijeoma could facilitate his
client’s bail, the policemen had collected N6m from him. The case was later
charged to court, where Oraefo received the favourably judgment.
Unfortunately, before the judgment
came, Okpe, had retired.
Asked if the compensation will still
be paid since Okpe had retired, Ijeoma said: “Okpe retired in December, but
other officers are still in service.”
Police have a tradition of not ever
paying for compensations and damages, how will Ijeoma ensured this money is
paid.
Ijeoma responded: “That is one of the
major issue we have. One of the major bottle necks that is associated with
fundamental right in Nigeria. Particularly, when it is the law enforcement
agency represented by the police. There was a judgement that involved the
police in 2014/2015, where a policeman shot a lorry conductor on his leg. The
leg was amputated. We went to court and got a judgement of N5m against the police.
Levying execution today remains a challenge, but we were not giving up on that;
we are still very much hopeful. There is a straight court decision that
empowers you to join the CBN in garnishing proceeding. Garnishing proceedings is
the process of levying execution on the account was the court will mandate the
bank to screen you through the account.”
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