Varsity lecturer drags Army Colonel to court over alleged harassment

A University lecturer and human rights activist, Prof. Chijioke Uwasomba has dragged Colonel Abubakar Abdulkadir Alkali of the Special Investigation Bureau of the Nigerian Army Military Police before a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory over alleged harassment and violation of his fundamental human rights.

He also demanded the sum of N10 million as exemplary damages for the threat to arrest him by the police at the instance of the Army Colonel.

The Commissioner of Police, FCT Command, was also listed as the second respondent in the suit marked W/7744/23.

The plaintiff in the fundamental human rights enforcement suit filed by his lawyers, Onyeisi Chiemeke and Abdul Mahmud, claimed he got a series of invitations with threats of arrest from the police following a breach of the agreement by the respondent.

Uwasomba, a lecturer in the Department of English at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife demanded, among others, “the sum of N10 million as exemplary damages for the said wrongful invitation” and threat to arrest him by the personnel of the police at the instance of Colonel Alkali for no legal justification.

He also demanded a declaration that the orders for his invitation and arrest by the police and its agents “based on the misleading information” was wrong, unlawful, illegal and a violation of his fundamental rights to personal liberty and freedom of movement as guaranteed by Sections 35, 41 and 44 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.

The OAU Don asked the court to restrain the respondents, their servants, agents and, or privies, jointly or severally, or any law enforcement agency acting pursuant to their instructions from threatening, harassing, arresting or detaining him and members of his family based on the complaint of the first respondent, in violation of his rights to dignity of the human person, personal liberty, freedom of movement and right to work guaranteed by Sections 34, 35, 37 and 41 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.

Uwasomba also asked the court to declare that the first and second respondents were not empowered by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or any other statute or instrument to threaten, harass, arrest or detain him in violation of his Fundamental Rights to the dignity of the human person, personal liberty, freedom of movement and right to work guaranteed by Sections 35, 37 and 41 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.

Meanwhile, no date has been fixed for the hearing of the case.