Alleged unlawful arrest, detention: Court fixes Sept.25 for judgement on enforcement of fundamental rights suit
By Jude-Ken Ojinnaka
Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has fixed September 25/28 for Judgement on the fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Michael Johnson Jimewo against the Assistant Inspector General of Police and three others.
Michael Johnson Jimewo (applicant) had filed the suit following his arrest, detention, harassment and intimidation by the police (1st to 3rd respondents) acting on the instigation of his employer Shago Payments Limited (powered by Alerzo) (4th respondent).
His application for an order for the enforcement of his fundamental rights was brought under Fundamental Rights (Enforcement) procedure rules 2009.
Respondents in the suit are the Divisional Police Officer (DPO)Ajao Estate Police Station, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) Zone Two Onikan, Lagos, Superintendent of Police (SP) Felix Yohanna, and Shago Payments Limited powered by Alerzo.
He filed the suit through Originating Motion, supported with 30-paragraphed affidavit sworn at the Federal High Court, dated 30th May, 2022. He attached four exhibits with written address in support of the application to enforce his fundamental rights. He also filed further affidavit in support of his application with two exhibits and a reply on point of law.
All the processes filed on his behalf by his counsel Malechi Okafor Esq. were adopted as prayed.
In his Originating Motion, Michael Jimewo sought the following reliefs:
“A declaration that his arrest and detention from 7th January to 10th January, 2022 by 1st respondent at the instigation of the 4th respondent in connection with an alleged fraud in his company is a violation of his (applicant) right to dignity of the human person, personal liberty and rights to freedom of movement as guaranteed by and under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and therefore unconstitutional, null and void.
“A declaration that the arrest and detention of the applicant from 10th January to 21st January, 2022 by the 2nd and 3rd respondents at the instigation of the 4th respondent in connection with an alleged fraud in the applicant’s company is a violation of the applicant’s right to dignity of the human person, personal liberty and rights to freedom of movement as guaranteed by and under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and therefore unconstitutional, illegal, null and void.
“A declaration that the collection of the applicant’s iPhone from 7th January to 28th February, 2022 by the 1st respondent at the instigation of the 4th respondent in connection with the alleged fraud in the applicant’s company is a violation of his right to privacy and moveable property as guaranteed by and under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and therefore unconstitutional, illegal, null and void.
“An order restraining the Nigeria Police Force from any further harassment of the applicant Mr Michael Johnson Jimewo which will infringe upon any of his fundamental rights.
“An order compelling the respondents jointly and severally to return to the applicant the sum of N300,000 cash forcibly collected from the applicant by the 2nd and 3rd respondents during the detention of the applicant and subsequent release on bail, the sum being payment for bail.
“An order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents whether by themselves, their privies, agents, servants and other law enforcement agents howsoever named, from arresting, detaining, threatening to arrest and detain the applicant or in any manner whatsoever, harassing or/and intimidating the applicant in connection with the 4th respondent’s complaint/petition.
“The sum of N80 million jointly and severally against the 1st to 4th respondents as damages for the violation of the applicant’s fundamental rights to the dignity of the human persons, personal liberty, right to freedom of movement and deprivation of right to possession of moveable property as guaranteed by and under the constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999(as amended)
“And for such further order(s) as this honourable court may deem fit to make in the circumstances.
The grounds upon which the applicant sought the reliefs amongst others are:
- The arrest and detention of the applicant and his detention from 7th January to 21st January, 2022 (15 days) at the instance and instigation of the 4th respondent both in Ajao Estate Police Station and Zonal Intelligence Bureau Onikan Zone 2 before he was finally granted bail.
*The collection of the applicant’s phone and deprivation to access to his phone for 52 days from 7th January to 28th February, 2022 at the instance and instigation of the 4th respondent by both the Ajao Estate Police Station and Zonal Intelligence Bureau Onikan Zone 2.
*Over 4 months have passed and no shred of evidence has been found connecting the applicant to the said alleged fraud despite the Police having found the people with accounts to which monies were transferred to and recovered over N19 million from them.
- Sections 35 and 41 of the 1999 constitution as amended guaranteed the applicant’s right to personal liberty, freedom of movement and human dignity respectively. Contrary to these provisions, the 1st to 3rd respondents arrested and detained the applicant and have continued to threaten to arrest and detain the applicant over an offence he knows nothing about.
*Sections 37 and 44 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) guaranteed the applicant’s right to private and family life and compulsory acquisition of property respectively. Contrary to these provisions, the 1st to 3rd respondents went through the applicant’s correspondence on his telephone (email, text messages, WhatsApp messages, and pictures). The 1st to 3rd respondents also took possession of the applicant’s phone over an offence he knows nothing about.
In his statement, the Mr Jimewo (applicant) averred that he was a pioneer staff and a minority shareholder of Shago Payments Limited (4th respondent) with its office located in Lagos. During his time in Shago Payments, he was the Operations Manager before the termination of his employment on the 23rd May 2022.
“There was a fraudulent activity carried out on our platform on the 2nd January 2022 using my M.D’s backend admin access. On the said date of the fraud, my M.D called my attention when he noticed an abnormal movement of funds to various accounts. I quickly checked the platform and noticed the fraudulent activity by a fraudster who was using a new agent account that was recently registered to the platform by two of our Sales staff”
Jimewo said that prior to the date of the incident, one of the sales staff sent a request for the account to be activated to an agent account. He said that from the backend logs they discovered
that there was an initial transfer of N5,000 by one of the sales staff to the new agent wallet in question, adding that the second sales staff transferred the said N5,000 from the agent’s wallet to his bank account prior to fraud day which was 2nd January 2021.
“On the fraud day 2nd of January 2022, a fraudster had access to our platform using my M.D’s backend access to increase thresholds and initiated wallet funding of N100,000,000 and began transferring funds to various bank account.”
He averred that his M.D noticed the fraudulent activity and called his attention, and he immediately blocked his M.D’s access to the backend as himself, his M.D and one other IT staff all had backend admin access, adding that they were able to salvage N53,000,000, while N47,000,000 were transferred to various bank accounts by the fraudster.
“I quickly collated the beneficiaries account details and sent a mail to the various banks which the fraudulent money were transferred to, in other for the bank to place a lien on the beneficiaries account. My backend access was compromised by same fraudster on the same day and initiated a wallet transfer of N1,500,000 to various bank accounts. I also collated the beneficiaries account details and sent a mail to the various banks that the fraudulent money were transferred to.
He said that the next day being 3rd January 2022, his company wrote a petition to the Police accusing him and two other of his colleagues of being involved in the fraudulent activity which he knows nothing about and till date no evidence has been traced to him.
“We were arrested (4days in Ajao Police Station and 11days at Zone 2 Police HQ Onikan) on the 7th January 2022 on the basis that I knew my M.D’s backend password which I don’t, and kept in detention till 21st January 2022 and our phones were confiscated till 28th February 2002. Several arrests of the beneficiaries of the fraudulent money were made, and money recovered, yet nothing was traced to me or my colleagues and none of the beneficiaries were detained or either charged to court.
According the applicant, after he was released, he asked his M.D why didn’t he report the issue to EFCC and his response was that he wanted to have control over the whole matter. As he was dissatisfied with the response of his M.D and with his M.D’s consent, he decided to report the fraud issue to EFCC to assist the Police in investigating the issue but EFCC’s reaction changed after his M.D and others were invited by the EFCC.
In pursuit of justice and to gain closure on the issue, he and his colleague Mr. Philip Ihekuna took Shago Payments Limited and the Police to the Federal High Court on the basis of defamation of characters.
Jimewo added that a second court process to sue on the basis of wrongful termination of employment is currently being prepared by his lawyer, Barr Malechi. And also, to claim his complete shareholders payment being held by his M.D as the company has been sold to Alerzo Limited but still bears “Shago Payments Limited powered by Alerzo”.
“Due to this accusations, I have been in and out of depression timelessly, dehumanized, used and felt cheated” the applicant claimed.
BUt in opposition to the applicant’s originating motion dated 30th May, 2022, the company, Shago Payments Limited (4th respondent in this suit denied some of the averments made by the applicant.
In a 14-paragraphed affidavit deposed to on 25th November, 2022 by Oluwadamilola Esther Tovide, a legal manager of the company, she averred that the company did not at any time material to the arrest or investigation of the application, insist or prodded the police authorities to keep the applicant at all cost, notwithstanding any favourable findings of the Police authorities.
That the 4th respondent made its report to the Police in good faith, having lost such humongous amount of investors money in a curious and suspicious circumstances.
That the 4th respondent was not spurious or actuated by ill-will or malice but trusted the Police to carry out their investigations to pin down the culprits.
That all the 4th respondent did was to report the crime that was perpetrated against it and reported who it reasonably suspected to be material or complicit in it.
That the court should discountenance the reliefs sought by the applicant and dismiss the suit in its entirety.
Similarly, opposing the applicant’s originating motion, 1st to 3rd respondents filed a joint counter affidavit in response to the applicant’s notice of application dated 30th May, 2022.
The 10-paragraphed counter affidavit dated 15th November, 2022 was deposed to by Inspector Felix Yohanna, a member of the Police team that investigated alleged crime of fraudulent electronic transfer of N47, 000, 360 and illegal financial transactions on the electronic payment platform of the 4th respondent which was reported to the 2nd respondent by Linda Ahaneku of the 4th respondent against the applicant and others from which this suit arose.
The respondents deny every averments in the affidavit in support of the applicant’s motion on notice for enforcement of his fundamental rights, particularly paragraphs 10 to 30 of the affidavit.
It was stated that the 1st to 3rd respondents and other officers working with them are statutorily empowered to investigate, arrest and detain any person(s) suspected to have committed crime, as in the instance crime of fraudulent electronic transfer of N47, 000, 360 and illegal financial transactions on the electronic payment platform of the 4th respondent.
person.
Conclusively, they urged the court to disregard the reliefs sought by the applicant and strike out his suit.
After hearing counsel to parties move in terms and adopted their processes, Justice Aneke fixed September 25/28 for judgement.