Emmanuel Thomas
July 16, 2015 – One of the four armed robbery suspects connected with the March 12, 2015 robbery of the Lekki branch of First City Monument Bank, Ebi Tosan, has sued the police for unlawful detention.
He is also demanding the sum of N1million as damages. Tosan claimed that it was unlawful for the police to continue to keep him in detention without bail.
Tosan(24) was arrestedApril 5, 2015 and paraded by the police along with three others – Duke Odogbo(38); Lawrence Kingsley(31); and Ekelemo Kuete (30) is seeking an order directing the police to immediately release him on bail.
In his argument, lawyer to the suspect, Chief S.W. Baidi, contended that his client’s continued detention without bail was an “infringement and curtailment of the applicant’s constitutional right to personal liberty, freedom of movement and presumption of innocence”.
He is seeking a declaration that his arrest, torture and continued detention by the State Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja, without bail was a violation of his human rights, preserved by sections 34(1)(a), 35(1)(4) and Section 41 of the 1999 constitution.
In a 26-paragraph affidavit filed in support of the originating summons, one Tamuno Amos, who addressed himself as the suspect’s uncle, said he believed that his nephew’s continued detention by the police was a deliberate act by the police to “extract a confessional statement from him on the alleged offence.”
Amos, who said he had not been allowed to see his nephew since his arrest, claimed that “the applicant is suffering on daily basis without access to food, bath and other conveniences and he may die in custody unless granted bail.”
The suspect had, on July 9, secured an order of Justice Lateefa Okunnu of a Lagos State High Court in Ikeja, directing the police to produce him in court on July 16.
On Thursday, however, when the matter came up, the police failed to bring the suspect to court and consequently, his originating summons could not go on.
The case has been slated for October 22 for hearing. While adjourning the case, Okunu ordered that the Lagos State Attorney General should be joined as a respondent, adding that if there was any urgency, the applicant could appear before October 22 before another judge who will be sitting during the court’s annual vacation, which begins next week.
The original respondents in the suit are the Lagos State Commissioner of Police and the Officer-in-Charge of SARS, Ikeja, SP Abba Kyari.
