{"id":128440,"date":"2026-07-17T09:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=128440"},"modified":"2026-07-17T09:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:32:07","slug":"court-awards-n2m-damages-to-businessman-wrongly-labelled-boko-haram-bomb-maker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-awards-n2m-damages-to-businessman-wrongly-labelled-boko-haram-bomb-maker\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Awards N2m Damages to Businessman Wrongly Labelled Boko Haram Bomb Maker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>By John Azu<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A Federal High Court sitting in Maiduguri has awarded \u20a62 million in damages to a businessman, Sheriff Umar, after ruling that his arrest and prolonged detention by the Nigerian Army over allegations linking him to Boko Haram were unlawful and unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In a judgment delivered by Justice Jude Dagat, the court also ordered the Nigerian Army, the Theatre Commander and Operation Hadin Kai to immediately and unconditionally release Umar from custody.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The court held that Umar&#8217;s continued detention without being informed of the reasons for his arrest, granted access to legal representation or charged before a court within the constitutionally prescribed period violated his fundamental rights.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Justice Dagat ruled that the detention &#8220;without informing him of the reasons for his arrest, granting him access to his lawyer or charging him to a court of competent jurisdiction within 24 hours to 48 hours is unlawful, unconstitutional, null and void as it violates Sections 34, 35, 36 and 41 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The suit, marked\u00a0<strong>FHC\/MG\/CS\/32\/26<\/strong>, was filed by Umar through his counsel, Hamza Dantalli, who challenged the legality of his client&#8217;s arrest and detention.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Among the reliefs sought, the applicant asked the court to direct the Nigerian Army to publish a public apology in two national newspapers for the alleged violation of his fundamental rights.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The applicant also sought \u20a6500 million as general damages, \u20a65 million as the cost of the action, \u20a65 million as compensation for emotional trauma, torture and humiliation, as well as post-judgment interest of 10 per cent per annum until the judgment sum is fully paid.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Nigerian Army, however, urged the court to dismiss the suit, arguing that the applicant failed to establish that he was being held in military custody or identify the specific location where he was allegedly arrested.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The respondents contended that the claims were speculative and unsupported by credible evidence.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In rejecting the Army&#8217;s arguments, Justice Dagat held that the evidence before the court clearly established that Umar had been arrested and detained by the military since December 30, 2025.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;I am convinced from the evidence before the court that the applicant was arrested and detained by the respondent (Nigerian Army) since 30th December, 2025 and up to the time the present suit was filed on 5th May, 2026, he was still in detention,&#8221; the judge said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;That means the applicant was in detention for more than five months. No reason or justification was proffered by the respondents for the applicant&#8217;s arrest and detention.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The judge further reaffirmed the constitutional safeguards governing arrests and detention, noting that security agencies are required to arraign suspects before a competent court within one or two days, depending on the availability of a court within the prescribed distance.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Section 35(5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) mandatorily provides that a person arrested shall be brought before a court of law within one day if there is a court of competent jurisdiction within a radius of 40 kilometres and, in any other case, within a period of two days,&#8221; Justice Dagat held.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Although the court declined to grant the full monetary compensation sought by the applicant, it awarded \u20a62 million in damages for the violation of his constitutional rights and ordered his immediate release from detention.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By John Azu A Federal High Court sitting in Maiduguri has awarded \u20a62 million in damages to a businessman, Sheriff Umar, after ruling that his arrest and prolonged detention by&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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