It was about the wrongful arrest of a real estate entrepreneur named Chukwuemeka Ekwueme. Presiding Justice D. A. Onyefulu, a vacation judge, also awarded the plaintiff N200,000 as litigation costs.
In addition, Justice Onyefulu granted a restraining order prohibiting the police from arresting, detaining, harassing, or intimidating Mr Ekwueme in connection with the same subject, and decided that the police should instead pursue charges against him.
The ruling was the consequence of Suit No. A/Misc 461/2022, which Mr Ekwueme filed against the defendants in order to enforce his freedom rights. Alex Ejesieme (SAN), Mr Ekwueme's counsel, had informed the court that the police arrested and imprisoned his client between December 14 and December 28, 2022, without prosecuting him in court.
The arrest and detention, he stated, were in connection with Mr Ekwueme's attempt to develop a block of land near Oba International Airport in Anambra's Idemili South Local Government Area. He said that the police seized his client on the basis of a community petition and imprisoned him between December 14 and December 28, 2022, without charging him. Nkiru Nwode, the police spokesperson for Zone 13 of the Nigeria Police Force, and Emmanuel Awah, an officer in the spokesperson's office, were also named as defendants in the action. Following a bail application by his attorney, the same court ordered Mr Ekwueme's immediate release on December 28, 2022. (NAN)
