A State High Court sitting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State has ordered a Policewoman in the State Police Command, Inspector Iniobong Umoren to pay a commercial tricycle operator, Jeremiah Sunday Udo, the sum of N5m for his unlawful arrest and for impounding his tricycle which he bought on hire purchase in the sum of N1.9m.
The court further ordered the first Respondent, Mr. Udoka David, the owner of the Tricycle (called Keke), to pay Jeremiah Udo (applicant) an additional N5 million for inciting the Police to arrest and hold him for five days without food or water.
The Court, presided over by Justice Ntong Ntong, issued the decision on Thursday while delivering judgment on an application for the enforcement of fundamental rights brought before it by Jeremiah Udo of Ikono Local Government Area.
The Court, on the other hand, extricated the Commissioner of Police, Akwa Ibom State Police Command, Mr. Olatoye Durosinmi, who was named as the third respondent in the suit, but directed him to caution his officers and men to always carry out their duties within the scope and purview of the law.
Jeremiah Udo, a resident of Ifa Ikot Idang in Uyo, informed the Court that he had been completing the hire purchase arrangement with Udoka David by paying him N20,000 every week until last year, when the Naira policy decimated the economy, leaving him owing N20,000 in weekly returns.
He stated that he was astonished to be ambushed and arrested on February 12th, 2023, after having already paid him eight hundred and fifty-five thousand Naira (N885,000) of the N1.9 million agreed upon in the hire purchase agreement for the full recovery of the tricycle.
Justice Ntong in a one hour judgement wondered why “Inspector Iniobong Umoren quickly impounded the tricycle and handed it over to the first respondent without an order of Court which has the power to interpret the terms of hire purchase agreements between parties and enforce its terms and conditions.”
The judge noted that “the first respondent, Mr. Udoka David took the law into his hands and lured the Policewoman, who also allowed herself to be led into jettisoning the rule of law using the name of Inspector General of Police and the Commissioner of Police to authenticate her unlawful act” which the Court described as “satanic, nefarious and unwholesome antics against the applicant.”
“Because of greed, Inspector Iniobong Umoren usurped the role of the Court and became a law unto herself. Having ncroached on the fundamental rights of the keke man, the law is there to protect the tricyclist from heartless people like Inspector Iniobong Umoren and Mr. Udoka David.
Justice Ntong further stated that he has “read all the processes filed by the parties and discovered that the evidence and documents including the bail bond, the petition and the statements exhibited by the first and second respondents, are doctored and fabricated to mislead the Court.”
