Court dismisses whistleblower’s enforcement rights suit against police

A Federal High Court, in Abuja, on Friday, dismissed a fundamental human rights enforcement suit brought before it by a whistleblower.

The whistleblower, Dr George Uboh, filed the suit numbered, FHC/ABJ/CS/613/2019 for the enforcement of his fundamental human rights against the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Honorable Ned Nwoko.

Uboh stated that he was unlawfully arrested on May 15, 2019, and unlawfully remanded in detention for 28 days.

Uboh prayed the court to hold that his confinement, arrest, emotional and psychological torture was unlawful and unconstitutional.

He then prayed the court to award the sum of one billion naira against the defendants as punitive damage for the violation of his right to personal liberty, right of movement and discrimination against him.

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The trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, in his judgement held that the applicant came to court to ask that he, be awarded punitive damages for violations of his fundamental human right and held that, the said application was a confirmation of a biblical prophetic pronouncement that, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.”

The judge, in his judgment, held that the suit lacks merit and accordingly dismissed it with a cost of N50,000 against the whistleblower, to be paid to the police, N50,000 to be paid to the governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele, and another N50,000 to be paid to Ned Nwoko.

Uboh accused the governor of CBN of colluding with the leadership of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to defraud Nigerians the sum of $2, 564, 000,000.

Emefiele allegedly wrote a petition against Uboh for publishing defamatory articles that are threatening the security of the nation.

However, the judge held in his judgment that, neither the police nor Emefiele presented the petition as an exhibit in court.

The judge stated that the personal liberty of the applicant is not absolute and that Uboh’s fundamental human right was not violated when Emefiele and Nwodo wrote petitions against him to the police.

Justice Abang emphasised that the police exercised their statutory power to arrest the applicant and added that the police got a remand order from a Magistrate Court, Mararaba, Nasarawa State for 14 days and that the applicant was arraigned in Upper Area court on May 20, 2019.

The judge said that the applicant was discharged from the court on May 31, 2019, when the police got another remand order to further detain him.

Judge Abang then held that the Federal High Court has no jurisdiction to review the decision of an Area court or magistrate court.