Court orders bank, police to pay N2.2m to nursing mother for unlawful arrest

A Federal High Court in Awka, Anambra State’s capital, has ordered Isuofia Microfinance Bank Limited and Police to pay N2.2 million to one Ohadugha Chizara, a nursing mother, for her wrongful arrest and incarceration at the Okpoko police cell, together with her six-month-old infant.

The applicant was Ohadugha Chizara, and the respondents were Isuofia Microfinance Bank Ltd, Nwafor Okechukwu, Nwoke Ifeoma, Commissioner of Police Anambra State, Ugochukwu Ugbo, Divisional Police Officer Okpoko, and Inspector Chinelo Okechi (I.P.O).

In her application for fundamental rights, the applicant’s counsel, F.N Asogwa Esq of His Grace Chambers, asked the court to order the respondents to pay her client (N100,000,000) One Hundred Million Naira in compensation and general damages.

The damages also include violations of her fundamental rights to life, human dignity, personal liberty, and freedom of movement from June 22, 2022, to June 24, 2022, at the Okpoko Police cell in Anambra State.

The petitioner further requested that the court award her client N50 million in exemplary damages for “violating, infringing, and breaching her client’s fundamental rights to life.”

The counsel also requested that the respondents be barred from “violating, infringing, and breaching her client’s fundamental right to life, the dignity of human persons, the right to personal liberty, and freedom of movement as enshrined in the Nigeria constitution, among other reliefs.”

In his decision on Friday, Justice F. I. Riman directed the Police, the bank, Nwafor Okechukwu, and Nwoke Ifeoma to compensate the nursing mother N2 million.

The Judge further ordered the defendants to pay N200,000 in exemplary damages for violating, infringing, and breaking the applicant’s fundamental rights at Okpoko Police Station, where he was imprisoned, from June 22, 2022 to June 24, 2022.

The court also issued an injunction prohibiting the respondents, his privies, agents, or cohorts from violating, infringing, or breaching Chizara’s fundamental rights to life, dignity of human persons, personal liberty, and freedom of movement, as enshrined in the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s constitution of 1999.

Chizara, the petitioner, was detained in connection with a loan transaction.