Court grants TBF leave to serve contempt processes on Lagos NCoS controller over defiance of medical evacuation order
The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has granted the Tunji Braithwaite Foundation (TBF) urgent leave to commence and serve substantive committal proceedings against the Controller of Corrections, Lagos State Command, over the agency’s failure to comply with a court order to evacuate a sick inmate for treatment.
The Vacation Judge, Justice Ogazi, grants the leave during a late-night sitting that runs until 8:00 p.m. on Friday, in what TBF describes as a major procedural victory in its public interest case to enforce the rule of law.
The dispute traces back to a Federal High Court order issued on July 16, which directs the Nigerian Correctional Service to immediately move Ufoma Joseph Immanuel, a British-Nigerian citizen in custody, to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) for treatment. According to the Foundation, Immanuel suffers from acute epileptic seizures and uncontrolled high blood pressure — conditions it says the clinic at Kirikiri Medium Custodial Centre cannot manage.
TBF alleges that instead of complying, the Lagos Corrections Command diverted Immanuel to an unauthorized Navy Hospital before returning him to his cell at Kirikiri, bypassing LASUTH entirely.
Counsel for the Foundation reportedly argues in court that the documented medical emergency constitutes a live threat to life under Section 33(1) of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to life, and cannot be treated as speculative.
While the court declines an interim prayer for an immediate arrest warrant opting to first give the Corrections Controller an opportunity to appear, Justice Ogazi moves up the substantive hearing date. The judge discards an earlier indication that the matter would resume on September 25 and instead fixes the substantive committal hearing for August 24, cutting about four weeks off the timeline. The court also orders TBF to personally serve the Controller with the committal papers within five days.
Reacting after the court rose, the Foundation says a superior court order is a mandatory directive, not a negotiable suggestion, and that it now has a clear legal pathway to serve the committal papers directly on the Controller. It adds that the Corrections hierarchy must appear in the dock on August 24 to explain under oath why an explicit court order to save a citizen’s life was allegedly ignored.
TBF says it has forwarded copies of the court filings to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the National Judicial Council, Amnesty International and the British High Commission.
