Court Rules On Igbo Deportees Suit December 5

Justice Musa Kurya of a Federal High Court in Lagos has slated December 5, 2014 to give judgment in a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed against Lagos State by 83 Nigerians of Igbo extraction, who were allegedly deported by force to Anambra State sometime in 2012. The applicants are Rosemary Nathaniel, Friday Ndukwe, Grace Igbochi, Ugulori Tutua, Chinyere Nicholas, Osondu Mbuto and 77 others. They filed the suit seeking a declaration of the court that their arrest, remand and alleged forceful transportation from Lagos to Onitsha in Anambra State, on the ground that they were non-indigenes of Lagos and against their consent, was a violation of their fundamental rights to personal liberty, freedom of movement and freedom from discrimination. The applicants want the court to declare that such alleged action of the Lagos State Government was a violation of Sections 35, 41(1) and 42 of the Constitution, and Articles 6,12, 2 and 28 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap., A9 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004. They want the court to award damages in the sum of N2bn against the Lagos State Government and its agents in their own favour. Joined with the state as respondents, were its Attorney General and the Commissioner of Police in the state. The applicants are also seeking for an order of the court compelling the respondents to tender a published apology to them in at least three widely circulating national dailies. Their counsel, John Nwokwu, from the chambers of the late Bamidele Aturu, argued that it was unlawful for Lagos State or any other state in the country to “remove by force a citizen of Nigeria from its geographical boundary or boundaries on account that the citizen is an indigene of another state or any account whatsoever.” Nwokwu prayed the court to order Lagos State to go in search of the said deported Igbo indigenes and to return them to Lagos, in addition to an order restraining the respondents from further deporting them out of the state. But it was the argument of Lagos State that the applicants’ deportation to Onitsha was not done out of malice but with the genuine intention of re-uniting them with their families. Lagos State averred that the applicants were only assisted to re-join their families after pleading that they had no homes, relatives or business in the state. Source:punch