Enugu lawyer seeks N100 million compensation over alleged torture

HUMAN rights lawyer and President, Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network ( CRRAN), Olu Omotayo, has asked the Enugu State government to pay him N100 million compensation.

Omotayo, in a pre- action notice sent to the Secretary to the Enugu State Government, Chidiebere Onyia, said the state has three months to pay or face court action.

According to him, the compensation was for the physical and psychological torture he suffered in the hands of operatives of the Ministry of Transport as well as violation of his constitutional rights, while on his way home on February 13.

In the notice, Omotayo disclosed how four officials of the ministry, working as traffic agents, allegedly accosted and accused him of violating traffic rules, thereby making him pay N30,500 as fine, and bundling his car to their premises at Independence Layout.

He said: “This is to inform you that on February 13, 2024, at about 3: 40 p. m., while in a traffic jam, waiting to be passed at the traffic light at New Haven Junction, some officials of the state Ministry of Transport dressed in green uniform drove, commando style, and used an unmarked eight- seater mini bus to block my car. Immediately, about four men came down and clamped the front tyre of my vehicle.

"According to them, I stopped beyond the white markings. When the traffic lights passed us, they directed me to turn back towards Government House road where I had been coming from. I did, and parked beside the road as directed.

“The next thing I saw was that these unruly fellows, acting like motor part routs, brought a towing van and started jacking up my vehicle while I was still sitting at the driver’s seat. The video showing the jacking up of my car by the towing van is attached here.

“They, thereafter, towed the vehicle while I was inside to the Ministry of Transport, Independence Layout, where they confiscated my vehicle.

The vehicle was later released to me late in the evening, after I was made to pay N30,500. The receipt is herewith attached."

The lawyer argued that officials of the Ministry of Transport “cannot be the prosecutor and judge in their own case without taking me before a court of competent jurisdiction.”

He said: "It is also shameful for the ministry to employ people that use acts of brigandage, violating citizens’ rights, under the guise of collecting revenue for the state."