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The Court of Appeal has rejected the appeal by a lawyer to the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, Felix Okonkwo, against the Nigerian Police and the Department of State Services (DSS).
Okonkwo had claimed his detention by the security agencies was unlawful, but the court decided otherwise when the case came up for hearing in Abuja on Monday. Justice Okon Abang of the Abuja Court of Appeal, who dismissed the appeal for want of merit and substance, was of the opinion that the appellant failed to establish a miscarriage of justice in the judgment of a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja in the matter. The appellants, comprising Felix Okonkwo, Ikenna Chibuike and Okafor Ugochukwu, had dragged the Police Force and the DSS before the high court for the enforcement of their fundamental human rights. They specifically accused the two security agencies of violating their fundamental rights by their unlawful arrest and detention on September 27, 2021, during which they claimed that they were tortured, harassed and intimidated while in the custody of the Police. Justice Samaila Bature had, in his judgment delivered on March 24, 2022, found the Police liable for the unlawful arrest and detention of the appellants and subsequently imposed a fine of N2 million against the Police to be paid to the appellants. Justice Bature, however, did not make any order against the DSS because the Appellants, then plaintiffs, did not disclose any cause of action against the secret police. Unsatisfied with the high court’s ruling, the three plaintiffs approached the Court of Appeal, praying for an order holding that DSS was also culpable in their arrest and detention. They claimed that the N2 million imposed on the Police as a fine to be paid to them was paltry and ridiculously low and asked the appellate court to jerk up the fine as compensation for their unlawful arrest and detention. However, Justice Abang in a lead judgement on Monday, held that from the video footage tendered as exhibit by the appellants at the trial court, there was nowhere the operatives of the DSS were found at the scene of their arrest in the house of Ifeanyi Ejiofor in Anambra State. The appellate court Justice disagreed with the appellants in their claims that the N2 million compensatory damages were grossly insufficient. According to Justice Abang, the decision to award compensatory damages is at the discretion of a Judge and cannot be dictated by any plaintiff or appellant. In the instant case, Justice Abang agreed with Justice Bature that peculiar facts and circumstances of the unlawful arrest and detention of the appellants were carefully considered at the trial court before arriving at the amount. Besides, Justice Abang said the appellants did not point out irrelevant facts in the judgment of the high court and did not disclose their status in society, their monthly or yearly income and what they lost in the course of their detention. “In my opinion and going by the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case, the N2 million compensation to the appellants was properly awarded. “I cannot fault the award because the appellant did not give any good reason for them to have been awarded a much higher amount. “In the final analysis, the appeal lacks merit and it is accordingly dismissed, the decision of the trial court is hereby affirmed. There is an order as to cost”, Justice Abang held. Other members of the Appeal Court panel, Justices Joseph Olubunmi Kayode Oyewole and Abba Bello Mohammed, endorsed the unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Abang.
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