A court in Nigeria’s commercial city of Lagos on Monday slammed a fine of $2500 against federal authorities for using the police last year to disrupt a protest asking President Muhammadu Buhari to resign over increased poverty and hunger.
Judge Maureen Onyetenu of the Federal High Court, Lagos awarded the sum in favour of a lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje, who filed the suit, local media report.
The court said it was awarding the N1mllion or $2564 against the government for using the police to disrupt the August 5 #RevolutionNow protest called by politician and news publisher, Omoyele Sowore.
Apart from the N1m award, the court also ordered the Federal Government to tender a public apology to the applicant in three national daily newspapers.
Ogungbeje told the judge that he participated in the #RevolutionNow protest and was, alongside other protesters, tear-gassed by security agents.
Justice Onyetenu upheld his argument that the disruption of the peaceful protest by the Nigerian government, through the police, was “illegal, oppressive, undemocratic and unconstitutional.”
The judge agreed with the applicant, who sued on behalf of himself and other protesters, that the Federal Government deprived them of their right to peaceful assembly and association, in violation of sections 38, 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution.
The judge also condemned “the mass arrest, harassment, tear-gassing, and clamping into detention” of the protesters.
The nationwide protest was convened by Sowore, publisher of online news medium SaharaReporters, who was arrested by the Department of State Services and detained on August 3.
Ogungbeje had urged the court to award N500m as general and exemplary damages against the Federal Government, DSS and the Attorney General of the Federation, but the court only awarded N1m.
The judge also upheld the defence of the DSS saying it was not involved in the disruption of the protest.
In the affidavit, which he filed in support of the suit, Ogungbeje said when he was co-opted into the #RevolutionNow protest, as a lawyer, he checked the constitution and found that it was lawful.
But the lawyer-turned-activist said on getting to the take-off point of the protest in Lagos “I met agents and operatives of the respondents who had barricaded the venue of the peaceful protest for good governance in Nigeria.
“I was tear-gassed by agents of the respondents and the peaceful protest was forcefully disrupted by the respondents”, Ogungbeje said.
Sowore would go on to remain in detention despite being granted bail for close to five months until the Nigerian government caved into pressure after a global outcry against his detention including letters by US lawmakers. He was later released on bail on December 24.
The charges of unlawful gathering and treasonable felony against Sowore and a co-supporter are still in place but the court handling the case in the capital, Abuja has recently accused the government prosecutor of delay tactics and sometimes deliberate refusal to appear in court.
Monday’s judgment will serve as a tonic to the #RevolutionNow convener whose movement has been restricted to Abuja by the bail conditions without being allowed to get near his residence in Lagos.
#RevolutionNow – Court fines Nigerian government $2500
