Panel beater drags IGP, others to court for unfair detention, demands N25m compensation
Mr. Friday Onyeobi, an Onitsha, Anambra State-based panel beater, has dragged the Inspector General of Police ( IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, the Anambra State Police Command, Mr Aderemi Adeoye, the Commander, Special Anticult Squad, Obosi for infringing on his fundamental rights by arresting, detaining and torturing him for five days, from July 4 to July 8, 2023.
In the reliefs, Onyeobi, who hails from Nsugbe, Anambra East Local Government Area of the state sought through his lawyer, Mr. Callistus Mmagu Esq. asked for the sum of N25m compensation being general and examplary damages.
He also asked the court to declare that his arrest, torture, and detention at Special Anticult Squad, Obosi, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State constituted a “gross violation of the applicant’s fundamental rights to dignity of human person, personal Liberty and freedom of movement.”
Onyeobi also pleaded with the court to grant an injunction restraining the respondents, their agents, servants, privies, and hirelings from further arresting, detaining, harassing and intimidating him as well as make other orders as the court might deem fit.
The panel beater was arrested when a Toyota RAV-4 jeep with registration number KSF776CQ bought, refurbished and entrusted to him to sale by his friend, Mr. Esiobi Okwudili, was stolen where it was parked at Omagba Phase II, Onitsha on June 19, 2023.
Esiobi who procured the services of SPACs, Obosi had earlier taken Onyeobi to two native doctors at Nsugbe and Awkuzu both in Anambra State.
The Anticult Police squad, said Onyeobi’s lawyer, chained his left hand with his left leg, and right hand with his right leg together.
Onyeobi’s lawyer said they hung him on pole like a goal post, where they loaded four six inches solid blocks on his back, forcing him to confess that he stole the vehicle, so that he would be released.
When he refused to agree with them,. said the lawyer, Onyeobi was brought down but he was already at the point of death especially when they loaded the fourth block on him.
He was later released on bail after extorting N20,000 from him.
