Tag Archives: damages

Court orders senator to pay damages for slapping newspaper vendor

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A High Court in Uyo has ordered a former senator from Akwa Ibom State, Anietie Okon, to pay N100,000 as damages to a newspaper vendor, Ndifreke Etim, whom he assaulted last year in Uyo.

Mr. Etim, who walks around the city of Uyo, hawking newspapers, had told the court that Mr. Okon slapped him multiple times inside Government House, Uyo, in September last year.

The assault occurred around the state banquet hall where the vendor had gone with the hope of making quick sales during the swearing-in of a new chairman of Akwa Ibom State Council of Traditional Rulers.

Mr. Etim claimed that three able-bodied men, who may have been Mr. Okon’s bodyguards, stood by to watch as the former senator kept slapping him.

“When he finished slapping me, he accused me of stealing his wallet. But God knows I am not a thief, I sell newspapers to take care of myself and my family,” Mr. Etim had told PREMIUM TIMES in November, shortly after the incident.

“He didn’t even search me to see if I had his wallet on me or not.”

The victim, backed by the Newspaper Distributors Association of Nigeria, Akwa Ibom State chapter, filed a civil suit against the former senator.

“I didn’t really think of reporting the case to the police; I wanted it sorted out in court,” said the vendor.

The court, presided over by Justice Winifred Effiong, held that the action of the former senator was degrading, and that it was against Mr. Etim’s right to the dignity of his person as guaranteed by Section 34(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as well as the African Charter on human and people’s right.

The court, besides granting an order that Mr. Okon should pay N100,000 as damages to Mr. Etim, also granted an order of perpetual injunction, restraining the former senator or his agents from further breaching of the applicant’s fundamental human rights.

It also ordered the former senator to pay additional N50, 000 as cost of the litigation to Mr. Etim.

“I am glad that the court has been bold enough to tell the senator that what he did against me was wrong,” Mr. Etim told PREMIUM TIMES. “It’s not about the money.”

When contacted, the former senator, Mr. Okon, said he was yet to get a copy of the court judgment.

Mr. Etim was represented in the case by Ndianabasi Udofia, while Mr. Okon was represented by Esther Archibong.

EFCC Opposes Fayose’s Request For N5 Billion Damages

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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has urged a Federal High Court sitting in Ado Ekiti to reject Governor Ayo Fayose’s request for N5 billion damages over the freezing of his personal bank accounts at Zenith Bank.

The anti-graft agency through its counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, at the resumed hearing of the suit on Friday urged the court to strike out Fayose’s further affidavit in response to its (EFCC’s) affidavit filed without leave of the court.

The EFCC contended that “it is visible to the blind and audible to the deaf that the Applicant (Fayose) is extremely out of time and there is no extension of time to file a further  affidavit.

Fayose had through his counsel, Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate, urged the court to award him N5 billion damages against the EFCC for freezing his two personal bank domiciled at Zenith Bank.

Ozekhome, argued that the Interim Order obtained by the EFCC on June 24 and granted by Justice M.B. Idris upon which the action was based was “fundamentally irredeemably wrong.”

Fayose sued the EFCC and Zenith on the freezing of his personal bank accounts following Account Numbers: 1003126654 and 9013074033 on May 24 seeking an order to de-freeze the accounts.

The EFCC alleged that the accounts were used to launder funds from the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) for the purpose of financing Fayose’s campaign in the 2014 governorship poll in Ekiti.

Ozekhome described the EFCC action of freezing or blocking Fayose’s accounts as illegal, irregular, wrongful, unlawful, unconstitutional, null and void.

Fayose’s counsel told the court that he had filed an Originating Summons dated 23rd June and filed the following day having 16-paragraph affidavit attached with Exhibit A, which is a letter from Zenith Bank freezing Fayose’s account.

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EFCC opposes Fayose’s request for N5 billion damages

Court Orders EFCC To Pay N5 Million Damages To Fayose’s Aide

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A Federal Capital Territory High Court has granted bail to Abiodun Agbele, an aide to the Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose.

Mr. Agbele was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on July 1 on allegations of fraud.

The EFCC said Mr. Agbele received huge public funds from a former defence minister, Musiliu Obanikoro, and delivered same to Mr. Fayose.

The judge, Olukayode Fadeniyi, declared that the failure of the EFCC to charge Mr. Agbele to court, since his arrest, amounted to an abuse of his fundamental rights.

He ordered the commission to pay a compensation of N5 million to Mr. Agbele.

The court also ruled that Mr. Agbele be admitted to bail with a bond of N50 million and a surety not below the cadre of a director in the civil service.

Alternatively, Mr. Agbele is required to provide a surety who is a responsible Nigerian citizen, with landed property in any part of Abuja.

“The surety shall depose an affidavit of means,” the court also ruled.

Mr. Fadeniyi also ordered Mr. Agbele to submit his international passport at the commission.

Credit: PremiumTimes

Illegal Detention: Senator Nyako Wins N12.5m Damages Against EFCC

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In what could be seen as a move to entrench the rule of law in the country, a Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday ordered that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) pay the sum of N12.5 million as exemplary damages in favour of Senator Abdulaziz Nyako for unlawful frozen of his account and illegal detention.

Justice Gabriel Kolawole made the order while delivering judgment in the fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Nyako against the EFCC.

In the ruling, Kolawole held that the applicant, Senator Nyako, son of former Governor of Adamawa State, Admiral Murtala Nyako, was detained in the custody of the Commission in excess of the period prescribed by law.

He berated the anti-graft agency for what he described as “reckless tampering with the rights of citizens in the name of discharging its statutory duties.”

The court further held that by declaring the applicant wanted without evidence of crime amounted to a breach to his fundamental human rights.

Justice Kolawole accused the Commission of embarking on a judicial fiat which is unpardonable exhibition of ignorance of the law as the National Assembly never intended to give it the powers of an accuser and a judge.

Credit: Thisday

President Jonathan’s ADC Sues EFCC, Demands N100m Damages

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An Aide de Camp (ADC) to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Ojogbane Adegbe, has dragged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to court to challenge his alleged detention.

Mr. Adegbe, a colonel, in the suit filed at the Federal High Court, his counsel, Ogwu Onoja, (SAN) is claiming N100 million damages for his detention which violated his fundamental rights.

Mr. Onoja urged the court to declare that his client’s arrest and continued detention by EFCC since February 11 was unconstitutional and violated his right to personal liberty guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution.

He urged the court to make an order directing the EFCC to immediately release the applicant from unlawful detention.

Mr. Onoja argued that the arrest and detention of Mr. Adegbe by the EFCC violated his right to personal liberty and freedom of movement guaranteed by Section 35 and 41 of the 1999 Constitution.

The applicant’s counsel contended that EFCC’s action violated Articles 5,6 and 12 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

The case has been fixed for Feb. 26 for hearing.

Credit: NAN

Dasuki Drags FG To ECOWAS Court, Demands N500m Damages

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Former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Mohammed Sambo Dasuki (retd), has dragged the Federal Government before ECOWAS Court in Abuja over his continued detention. He is also demanding payment of N500 million damages for alleged rights infringement.
This is even as a Federal High Court in Abuja yesterday ordered the government to produce him by February 16.
Dasuki is also urging the sub-regional court to order his release forthwith.
In the suit filed by his lawyer, Robert Emukpoeruo, the former NSA is urging the court to declare among others, that his continued detention in defiance of orders for his bail granted by three courts, and after fulfilling the bail conditions, was “unlawful, arbitrary and an egregious violation” of his human rights.
The applicant also urged the ECOWAS Court to hold that it was, “a most egregious violation of the treaty obligations” signed by Nigeria under and by virtue of its being a signatory to legal instruments, to have unlawfully detained him under a “de-humanizing condition” after he had  been granted bail and met the conditions for his release.
Similarly, the former NSA would want the court to declare that the alleged invasion of his privacy, home and correspondence at his Abuja and Sokoto residences on July 16 and 17, 2015 and the “forceful and unlawful seizure” of his properties, “without any lawful order or warrant” constituted a gross violation of his fundamental rights and offended the country’s treaty obligations as a signatory to the listed legal instruments.

Credit: Sun

Ahmed The ‘Clock Boy’ Seeking $15 Million In Damages

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Two months after “clock boy” Ahmed Mohamed made international headlines, new details of his controversial arrest emerged Monday in a letter his attorney has sent to school and city officials in Irving, Texas.
As many as seven adults teamed up to interrogate the 14-year-old boy after a teacher mistook his homemade clock for a bomb and pressured him to sign a confession, according to the “letter of demand” from his lawyer warning of plans to file a $15 million suit.

Ahmed’s September arrest, deemed an overreaction by many observers, drew waves of sympathy and extensive news coverage; President Obama invited him to join several other science-inclined students at the White House’s “Astronomy Night” last month.

But his family, which shortly thereafter took up a benefactor’s offer to relocate to Qatar, argued in the letter that the boy’s reputation has been “permanently scarred.” They are seeking not only financial reparations but written apologies from the city’s mayor and police chief.

“Everyone in the country and around the world believes this has been a wonderful experience for Ahmed’s family, and in some ways, it has been,” said Anthony Bond, a family friend. “But now they are settled in Qatar, they have realized they are tremendously traumatized.”

The letters elaborate on the timeline of the arrest, which set the Internet into a frenzy and changed a 14-year-old boy’s life forever.

The letter of demand alleges that officials at Ahmed’s school never really thought that his homemade clock, assembled from “spare parts and scrap pieces he had around the house,” was a bomb. Attorneys claim that Ahmed showed it to another teacher earlier in the day without consequence. But in his English class, a teacher told him it “looked like” a bomb.

An Irving School District spokeswoman said the district received the letter of demand this morning and that its own lawyers would “respond as appropriate, as with any legal matter,” but otherwise offered no comment.

Attorneys blame the school district and the city for “stoking the flames” and placing blame on Ahmed even after it was decided he would not be criminally charged and his “suspicious-looking item” was not a threat.

The family is demanding an apology from Van Duyne and others involved because they would like to return to Irving, attorney Kelly Hollingsworth said.

“Qatar is nice, but it is not Texas. That is their attitude toward this,” Hollingsworth said. “They are citizens of Irving, Texas, USA, first. Are they devout people devoted to their faith? Absolutely. But they are Texans, too, and they want to come home. What we are seeking is for them to be able to do that with their heads held high.”

“The generosity and support Ahmed has received has been very much appreciated, but what the system has to do is try to find a way to redress him,” Hollingsworth said. “What’s the effect of this young man having his reputation in the global community scarred for the rest of his life?”

Source: Washington Post

Post-Cecil: Huntress Boasts About Killing ‘An Old Giraffe’ And Warns ‘Haters’ There’s More To Come

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Sabrina Corgatelli, a keen huntress from McCammon, Idaho, uploaded this image of her posing over a giraffe she shot

 The death of Cecil the lion has shocked the world and led to a backlash against big game trophy hunting – but this Idaho woman knows what side she’s on.

Sabrina Corgatelli, a university accountant from McCammon, Idaho, has gleefully posted images of herself on big game hunts comparable to that taken by Walter Palmer onto social media in the midst of the controversy.

In one image she poses over a downed giraffe, accompanied with the caption: ‘Day #2 I got a amazing old Giraffe. Such a amazing animal!! I couldn’t be any happier!! My emotion after getting him was a feeling I will never forget!!!’

And despite a stream of obscene and disparaging comments accusing her of animal abuse and heartlessness, the huntress has vowed to continue sharing the images regardless of what her ‘haters’ think. Smh, trouble maker. See more photos below…

Corgatelli, who has apparently been hunting since late July, also posted this image of a warthog she took down. Her posts have been met with howls of protest

Corgatelli poses with the beat in another image. The giraffe is her largest quarry so far and is likely to have attracted a kill fee of around $2,600

The gang: Corgatelli also uploaded this image of her hunting party trekking through the South Africa wilds

Lion killer: Corgatelli is pictured above posing over a slain lion, which is thought to have been killed by her boyfriend, center

Another one: Above Corgatelli poses over an impala, a breed of antelope, which she described as ‘Africa’s icon’

‘Beautiful’: Another one of Corgatelli’s trophy kills was this wildebeest. Her hunting trip is likely to have cost in excess of $10,000 in kill fees, lodging and other charges.