A Federal High Court sitting in Bauchi has awarded ₦210m against the Nigeria Police Force as indemnification for torture leading to the death of two people and injury to the third person accused of stealing chickens.
The victims, Abdulwahab Bello, Ibrahim Babangida and Ibrahim Samaila, were allegedly beaten by the Divisional Police Officer of the Township Division, SP Baba Ali, on July 21, 2020, for allegedly stealing chickens belonging to a retired police officer.
The torture led to the death of Samaila and Babangida while Bello survived with life-threatening injuries. The survivor then slammed three separate suits demanding ₦150m damages each for himself and his two friends from the police.
Read also: Police Reward Officers Who Rejected ₦1m Bribe
According to The PUNCH, the defendants in the suit included the DPO, 1st defendant; one Sergeant Jibril Mohammed, 2nd defendant; Inspector-General of Police, 3rd defendant; Commissioner of Police, Bauchi State, 4th defendant; and the Police Service Commission, 5th defendant.
Bauchi CP, Lawan Jimeta
Delivering the three judgments separately against the respondents on Friday, the presiding judge, Justice Hassan Dikko, said the action of the police against the three accused amounted to an infringement on their fundamental human rights as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
He declared that the actions of the respondents against the three accused were “callous, cruel and uncivilised.”
He therefore awarded ₦100m each to the biological mothers of the two deceased and ₦10m to the mother of the survivor as compensation and general damages, with 10 per cent interest rate per annum until the total amounts were fully paid.
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