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Court
Declares Arrest Of American Illegal
A Federal High Court sitting in Benin yesterday said the
arrest of a Nigerian and three American filmmakers by
men of the Joint Military Taskforce is illegal and a
breach of the constitution.
It also awarded the sum N5 million as damages against
the Federal Government.
Men of the Joint Military Task Force had arrested Joel
Bisina and three Americans who were in Nigeria for a
documentary on the Niger Delta titled “Sweet Crude” on
April 12, hound them to Abuja by road in the night
before handing them over to men of the State Security
Services who held them for about six days.
Bisina had approached the Federal High Court through his
counsel, Dr. Bello Orubebe, praying for declaration that
his arrest, detention and harassment without access to
his counsel and medicare breached his fundamental human
rights and asked for a cumulative damages of N15
million.
The respondents were the Attorney General of the
federation, the Chief of Defence Staff, the Inspector
General of Police, commander of the Joint Military Task
Force and the State Security Services.
The presiding judge, Justice M. B. Idris in his judgment
granted all the prayers by the plaintiff and held that
the arrest and detention of Bisina was illegal
unconstitutional and null and void, adding that the
denial of access to medical personnel in it self also
constitute bridge of fundamental human rights.
Idris also declared as unconstitutional, the demand for
security pass by the military in the Niger Delta
waterways and ordered the defendants to tender
unreserved public apology to the plaintiff and also pay
him a compensation for general damages to the tune of N5
million.
Orubebe, counsel to the plaintiff speaking to reporters,
described the judgment as an erudite, well written
judgment , noting that it was not just a land mark
judgment but that it had taken human right judgment and
practice to the 21st century ..
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