A Delta State High Court has ordered the Nigeria Police Force to pay N20million to the family of an auto technician, Samson Efe, who died in the cell of the State Criminal Investigation Department while being held as a suspect in 2016.
Forty-one-year-old Efe, who hailed from Aghalokpe in Okpe Local Government Area of the state, was arrested on November 12, 2016 by the operatives of the Anti-Kidnap Section of the State CID, Asaba, at his workshop in Sapele and whisked to Asaba, where he was detained in a cell. But he later died in detention due to the inability of his family members to raise the N150,000 bail demanded by the police for his release.
The Presiding Judge, Justice A. O. Omamogho, ordered the police to pay the sum of N20million as damages to the Oseahweke family of Aghalokpe over what the court described as an extra-judicial and brutal murder of their son, Efe, who was a father of four.
Delivering judgment last Wednesday in the suit numbered S/6/2017, instituted by Chief Lucky Oseahweke against the Inspector General of Police, Justice Omamogho, ordered the police to pay the N20million damages to the Oseahweke Family of Aghalokpe Town in Okpe Local Government Area of Delta State, as represented by the claimant.
The deceased was said to have earlier complained to the claimant, his father, about how his interrogators had subjected him to severe torture since his arrest on November 12, 2016.
The police had demanded the sum of N150,000.00 for the suspect’s bail.
But on November 18, 2016, the suspect slumped and died in the cell at the State CID, Asaba, before the claimant could raise the above sum demanded for his bail, and without the consent of his family, police doctors conducted a postmortem examination on his corpse.
The police later claimed in its report that the suspect died of heart attack. The deceased suspect was thereafter hurriedly buried by the police.
Solicitor to the deceased suspect’s family, Mrs. O. J. Egbo of Ikimi Oghenejabor & Co. Legal Practitioners, followed up the case of extra-judicial and brutal murder of their client and an order at the High Court 1, Sapele, directing that the said corpse of the deceased be exhumed for a joint postmortem examination to be conducted by police pathologist and that of the family of the deceased, was ignored by the police authorities in the state.
The police (defendant) refused to defend the said suit and on Wednesday, May 23, 2018, judgment was entered in favour of the claimant after the adoption of final written address from Mrs. O. J. Egbo of Ikimi Oghenejabor & Co., lawyers for the claimant.
The elated counsel to the claimant said the judgment that the court’s decision would teach the Nigeria Police Force how to protect lives and property of the citizens.
