Court orders release of driver in prison remand for 6 years without trial ...orders IGP to pay him N10m damages

A judge sitting at the Federal High Court, Lagos, yesterday ordered the immediate release of a driver, Jones Ofori, who has been in prison custody since 2013 without trial.

The judge, Sule Hassan, also ordered the Inspector-General of Police to pay Ofori the sum of N10 million as damages for his unlawful arrest and illegal detention.

Justice Hassan issued the release order while delivering judgment in an enforcement of fundamental rights suit filed by the driver through his lawyer, Adewale A. Fadipe.

The judge said that though he noted that the respondents filed a counter to the suit, there had been no proof of service of the counter on the applicant in the court file. Moreover, he said, the respondents never appeared before the court to argue the counter.

With the development, he said, he was constrained to grant the reliefs the applicant had sought.

The applicant had asked the court for a declaration that is arrest and detention for two weeks and a week at the Ajiwe police station and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja, respectively, was illegal and constituted an infringement of his fundamental rights to personal liberty as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

He also asked the court for an order for his immediate release from prison custody and an award of the sum of N50m in his favour for his “unlawful arrest, detention and continued detention.”

Ofori had been arraigned before Magistrate Court 17, Ikeja, on December 2013, for robbery after the car of his employer, one Mr Ikechukwu, went missing. He had been employed by Ikechukwu to be driving the car for commercial purpose and was delivering to him the sum of N3,500 daily.

Ofori had stated in an affidavit that on November 13, 2013, at about 9pm, after the day’s job, he had parked the car at a general car park around his house in Ajah, Lagos. But on November 14, at about 6am, on getting to where he had parked the car to clean it and get ready for the day’s work, he discovered the car was missing.

He said after his employer reported him to the police, he had since been detained without trial on charges of armed robbery, which he maintained he knew nothing about.