LAGOS, Federal Republic of Nigeria. The death of one of the suspects of the N1 billion pension scam that rocked the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Patricia Onyeabo, will cost the Nigerian Police N100 million damages, a Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday ruled.
Onyeabo died in the police custody on May 16, 2014, while investigation into the alleged scam was ongoing. But Justice Mohammed Idris, who gave judgment on a fundamental rights enforcement action filed by the daughter of the deceased, Amaka, awarded N100 million damages against the Nigeria Police Force for Onyeabo’s death.
The judge found the police culpable for denying the deceased access to hospital facility, saying had the police done so, he would not have died.
“I hold that the Nigeria Police have failed in their responsibility. “The applicant had a right to life and dignity of human person but was denied while in the custody of the police, thereby leading to the termination of her life. If she was allowed access to the hospital, she would not have died.
“The police denied her the opportunity to visit the hospital for the treatment of her ailment, therefore the applicant deserves general damages in the sum of N100 million,” Idris held.
Onyeabo, a former legal adviser and secretary to the NRC, had died in the police custody in May 2014, about four weeks after the police detained her over an alleged N1 billion pension fraud, in which the
deceased was implicated.
The deceased was reportedly placed under investigation alongside her co-suspects, Celestine Chukwu, EunaIgbe and Olumide Lawal, who were entrusted with the management of the NRC workers’ contributory pension scheme.
They were said to have been initially detained at the Nigerian Railway Police Command in Ebute-Meta, Lagos, before being transferred to the Federal Criminal Investigation Department in Abuja. Onyeabo was said to have died about five days later.
Her daughter, through her counsel, Anthony Idigbe (SAN), had instituted a fundamental rights enforcement action against the police claiming N1 billion for general and aggravated damages over the
“unlawful detention, harassment and intimidation of the applicant’s deceased mother.”
Idigbe claimed that the police had violated the fundamental rights of the deceased to life, dignity of human person, personal liberty, freedom of movement and fair hearing as enshrined in Sections 33, 34, 35, 36 and 46 of the 1999 Constitution.
The monetary damages claimed, Idigbe said was meant to assuage the pain caused the daughter of the deceased, Amaka, over the “continuous deterioration of the applicant’s deceased mother’s health until her very painful and premature death; complete degradation, loss of reputation and goodwill of the applicant’s mother’s family name built by sheer hard work, the collective shame and ostracism suffered by the entire Onyeabo family as a result of the lawless and abusive acts of the respondents.”
Credit: Daily Independent (Nigeria)
