Daily Chronicle
A Bauchi based human rights legal practitioner, Y.A Haruna Esq of Y.A Haruna & Associates has instituted a suit before Bauchi State High Court in the matter of application by Sa’idu Abubakar and Abdulaziz Usman for enforcement of their fundamental rights to personal liberty, fair hearing and right to dignity of human person as guaranteed under Sections 35, 36 and 34 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as Amended ).
The human rights lawyer instituted the matter against one Alhaji Rabo Abdulkadir seeking a declaration that the act of the respondent of detaining, chaining the applicants in his residential home is on infringement to the applicants’ fundamental rights to personal liberty, fair hearing and right dignity of human person.
He is also seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondent whether by himself, agents, cohorts, or any person acting on his behalf or receiving directives from him from further arresting, detaining or doing anything prejudicial to the applicants.
Another order the lawyer is seeking for is for the of the Court directing the respondent to pay the applicants the compensation of the sum of N100,000,000.00 at N50, 000,000 each for infringing on their fundamental rights
He also seeking an order of the court directing the respondent to issue a written apology to the applicants as well as for such further or other orders as the Court may deem fit to make in the circumstances.
The grounds upon which the application was brought according to the legal practitioner was that the respondent infringed on the right to fair hearing of the applicants.
The respondent also infringed on the fundamental rights to liberty of the applicants making the applicants to need to be compensated for violating their rights as well as the need to issue an apology to the applicants for violating their human rights.
Speaking to Journalists in the premises of High Court Complex after the case was adjourned on the cause of issue, Barr YA Haruna explained that the respondent, Alh Rabo Abdulkadir had detained the applicants and two others in his residence under an inhuman conditions by chaining them for four days without feeding.
According to him, “What actually happened is that, there is a boy called Ismail that was arrested in the residence of Alh Rabo Abdulkadir here in Gwallaga within Bauchi metropolis, he was caught in the house trying to steal some items. When he was caught, he was interrogated by the owner of the house, Rabo Abdulkadir”.
He added that, “Upon interrogation, he admitted that indeed there was a time he stole some items from the house and sold same to one Sa’idu Abubakar who is a very young man of 18 years. When Sa’idu was invited for further interrogation in the house by the same man, Rabo Abdulkadir, he said that he sold the items to his boss who is Abdulaziz Usman who was also invited to the house”.
“When he was invited, luckily he was there with his parents as well as the parents of Sa’idu too. They pleaded with the man that having admitted that they bought the items from him, let them think of the best way to resolve the problem amicably. They told him that Sa’idu and Abdulaziz told the owner of the house that they were not aware that the items were stolen, if they had known, they will not have bought them”, he added.
According to the lawyer, “surprisingly, the same man further interrogated Ismail Yakubu as to whether he has been entering the house alone or with another person to which he answered that he had been going with another guy called Aliyu Abdullahi. All in all, he had 4 people in his custody”.
“When they were trying to resolve the problem amicably, Rabo Abdulkadir said no, he had decided to detain them in his residence. He chained them, kept them where he kept his old car, locked them, tied their legs with their hands giving them food once in a day for 4 days. The families pleaded with him but he did not listen to them”, he further said.
Barr YA Haruna added that, “Like isma”il and Aliyu Abdullahi were there for 4 days while Sa’idu and Abdulaziz were there for 3 days. They pleaded with him but he remained adamant. The elder brother of one of the persons in his custody fell back to the Elders in the community thinking that if they met him, he would certainly listen to them believing that they are his contemporaries”.
“But when they met him, he remained unperturbed and will not listen to anything, all he knows is that he will deal with them and that was exactly what happened. It was out of frustration because the man has been very arrogant in the community thinking that nobody can take action against him because he is an in law to a serving Minister and so, he is untouchable”, he stressed.
He added that, “When they approached me, I rushed down to the Police Command, reported the matter, when they heard what happened, they were surprised, they could not believe it. But they said okay, let them give us the benefit of the doubt, they swung into action and when they rushed to the place, the man came out and they asked him, where are the boys you detained and he opened up the place where they were tied down with strong chains on their legs and hands”.
“The place is not completely roofed, they slept seated, they could not lay down, with mosquitoes, urine everywhere. That was exactly what happened and they were rescued by the Police who removed the chains from their legs, in fact he was asked to remove the chains himself, which he did. They were taken to the Police Area Command”, he explained.
On their heath status at the point of rescue, he said that, “You see naturally, ideally I mean, they were supposed to be taken to the hospital but the terrible thing is that, the man apparently turned out to be something else, neither a suspect nor a complainant. The reason I said so is that, when they were taken to the Area Command, the man was asked to come along with us but when we got there, he was given a very good seat”.
He continued that, “what really surprised me was that, even at the point of getting to the Area Command, the man did not know that he committed an offense, and the Police did not bother to let him know that he committed an offense, the guys were rather kept behind the counter while he was given VIP treatment. In fact, we were waiting thinking that they will do one thing or two, take his statement and tell him what he did wrong”.
He stressed that, “Few minutes later, the OC in charge drew our attention that the Commissioner of Police called him that he was instructed to release the man. In fact, someone I don’t want to name here called him saying that it was a serving Minister that called that the man should be released. At that point, we were confused but I decided to leave the boys there and rushed back to my office to prepare my court process so that I will not lose focus”.
“The following day, I prepared my brief and made sure I filled a suit, after which I rushed to the Police Command, met the OC in charge who rescued the boys and asked him, do you know that what you people are subjecting these boys to is like double jeopardy, they were detained by somebody, and you are now detaining them here, what is the meaning of this. He said, no, please, come and pick them and that was what exactly happened. They are now in their homes”, he further explained.
The legal practitioner gave the ages of the victims as Ismail, 15 years, Aliyu Abdullahi, 13 years, Sa’idu Abubakar, 20 years and Abdulaziz Usman, 18 years stressing that two of them are minors.
He stressed that, “Under the Nigeria laws, no human being should be treated in that manner. We are in the Court to fight for their fundamental human rights for breaching their rights to liberty and rights to human dignity”.
A human rights NGO in Bauchi has pledged to support the human rights lawyer to ensure that the matter was pursued to a logical and positive conclusion in order to ensure that fundamental human rights of every innocent citizen was protected.
When contacted for reactions to the allegation against the Police by the legal practitioner, the Command PPRO, SP Ahmed Wakili said that he will not comment because the matter is before a court of competent jurisdiction.