THE Federal high court holden at Asaba, has ordered the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to pay the sum of N10m as exemplary damage following the brutalization and illegal detention of a 14-year-old secondary school student sometime in 2011.
The student, Amanda Atigbi of Saint Paul’s Grammar School, Ebu in Delta State, according to the facts of the case was handcuffed, tortured and kept in solitary police cell while in detention at Illah police station, and denied access to his parents or a lawyer.
Justice C.M.A. Olatoregun-Isola awarded the cost against the police authorities, on Friday, while delivering judgment in a suit seeking to enforce the fundamental rights of the girl brought about by her mother, Mrs. Anthonia Atigbi, describing the brutalization meted on the girl as act of wickedness.
Mother of the girl had in a 69-paragraph affidavit in support of the originating motion stated that “that about 10am on Wednesday 21st September 2011, I sent the 1st application (daughter) to a daily marked called aja-ilo, Ebu located about one kilometre away from my house to buy fish and other condiments with which to prepare a meal for me.
“That I was informed while 1st applicant (daughter) was busy shopping for the items, she had an argument with the 1st respondent (Mrs. Priscilia Ajamah) over the price of fish. That the argument degenerated into an altercation and unexpectedly, the 1st respondent without any provocation whatsoever slapped the 1st applicant.
“That in self-defence, the 1st applicant responded with a slap and a fight ensued between the two of them.
“That the 1st respondent vented her anger on the 1st applicant by beating her up mercilessly into coma and subsequently threw her into a pond of erosion water, lowered her head and forced her to drink the muddy water.
“That while the 1st applicant was trekking home the 6th to 9th respondents (police officers) in company of the 1st respondent (Mrs. Ajamah) in an ash-coloured Sports Utility vehicle with the following car plate number Lagos CX 939 APP drover to her and ordered her to enter the car.
“That she saw from a distance that the 1st applicant was battered, traumatized and sick due to detention in cold and solitary police cell”.
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