Order police to pay me N10m compensation for my arbitrary arrest, trader pleads with NHRC panel

A trader dealing in provisions in Wuse Market, Abuja, Nnaemeka Orjiakor, on Wednesday pleaded with the independent investigative panel on human rights violations by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and other police units to order a N10million compensation to be paid to him by the police for the alleged cruel fate he suffered in the hands of the police.

Orjiakor made the plea at the hearing of his petition by the panel set up by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in which he alleged arbitrary arrest, detention and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the police in 2019.

Narrating his ordeals in the hands of SARS, the petitioner informed that operatives of the defunct police outfit led by one Mohammed Elbow Awal arrested him on February 8, 2019, in his shop, handcuffed and paraded him around Wuse Market before taking him to their office at Area 3, Garki, Abuja, where he was beaten and detained for six days before he was released.

The petitioner told the panel presided over by Dr Garba Tetengi SAN, who stood in for the chairman, Justice Suleiman Galadima (retd), that he rented a shop from a lady in Wuse Market sometime in 2006.

He explained that sometime in 2010 when he was not making enough sales, he had to sublet part of the shop to a third party with a view to enabling him to pay the shop rent and as well boosting his business.

According to Orjiakor, unknown to him, the person he sublet part of the shop to went behind him to pay the rent to the landlady when the rent was due, adding that the person did that in order for him to be the sole occupant of the shop.

He added that the person subsequently invited the police to evict him from the shop as he (Orjiakor) was an illegal occupant.

He informed that with the police’s intervention the matter was taken to court where the trial had commenced, adding that despite this, SARS personnel arrested him on the morning of December 24, 2018.

He said he was arrested on the allegation that the owner of the shop claimed that he (Orjiakor) wanted to sell the shop, adding that he got someone to inform his wife of his arrest before he was taken away and the wife then reported to his lawyer.

He further told the panel that upon the report, his lawyer came to the police station and informed the police that the matter was already in court, following which he was released in the evening of the same day.

Orjiakor told the panel that despite this, the police came to arrest him the second time on February 8, 2022, adding that this time he was subjected to torture and degrading treatment.

He, therefore, urged the panel to order compensation be paid to him to assuage the degrading treatment he received at the hands of the police.

Meanwhile, the petition has been adjourned to March 22 for the continuation of the hearing and defence.

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