The Appeal Court sitting in Abuja has affirmed the verdict of an Abuja High Court in a fundamental human rights enforcement suit filed against the Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) and the Nigerian Police Force by an Abuja based journalist and publisher of FreshNEWS Online Media, Desmond Utomwen.
Utomwen , a former staff of TheNEWS Magazine, had on 11th December, 2009 sued the Bank and the Police to court over his molestation at the Area 3, Garki Abuja branch of GTB.
The reporter who visited the bank to cover a protest by some Nigerians over allegations that officials of GTBank were involved in fraudulent withdrawals of large amounts through the bank’s Automated Teller Machines (ATM) was tortured by policemen attached to the bank and bank officials.
It was gathered that police also seized his belongings, including identity card, N2,000, camera, and digital recorder, before he was detained at the Garki Police Station for several hours without giving him access to medical treatment.
In a landmark judgment delivered on October 12, 2012, Justice Peter Kekemeke of FCT High Court declared that the actions of the GTBank and the Police was a violation of the reporter’s right to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment, right to own moveable and immoveable property and ordered the Bank and the Police to pay the sum of N100 million as damages for their wrongful act and to immediately return all the items seized from the journalist.
But Jugde Kekemeke’s verdict did not go down well with the Police and GTB Bank and then returned to appeal court for redress.
However, Justice Godswill Amadi , who affirmed the verdict of the lower court, on Tuesday said the appellants did not state anything in the appeal to dispute the facts on which the lower court based its judgment, therefore, reduced the monetary compensation from N100 million to N20 million.
“Honestly, the lower court did a great job in evaluation of the evidence and arrived at correct findings and conclusion on the breach of the fundamental human rights of the first respondent (Desmond Utomwen) by the Police at the behest and active instigation of the appellant,” the Justice stated.
The Justice who maintained that there was no justification in law for the brutalisation, restriction, and seizure of the working tools of Desmond Utomwen also held that the Police and agents of GTBank had acted in in breach of personal liberty, freedom of speech, human dignity and freedom of press in the crass and debasing manner they ill-treated and brutalised the journalist in contravention of section 39 of the Constitution.
