Bus Driver Detained For Six Years Wins N10m Against Nigeria Police
A bus driver who was detained for 6 years without trial, has won a N10m lawsuit against the Nigerian Police at the Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday.
The commercial bus driver, Jones Ofori who was detained for an alleged robbery without trial since 2013, had his counter lawsuit filed on his behalf by his lawyer, Adewale Fadipe.
He was reportedly arrested by the police in 2013 after a bus given to him by his employer, one Mr Ikechukwu, went missing from where he parked it overnight in the Ajah area of Lagos.Jones who was first detained for two weeks at the Ajiwe Police Station, Ajah after a complaint was made; was subsequently transferred to the office of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Ikeja, where he was further detained for two weeks.
However after he was charged with robbery before a state’s magistrate’s court which remanded him in prison custody, he was kept in prison and never arraigned again. Justice Muslim Hassan who ruled on the case in which the bus driver detained for six years won N10m against the Nigerian police, said he had no other option but to grant the relief sought by Ofori because his arrest and detention without trial violated his fundamental rights