By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
There is another twist to the #RevolutionNow protest which was organised by the embattled Publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore, as a Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Monday declared that the disruption of the protest for good governance by Nigerian security agents was illegal, oppressive, undemocratic and unconstitutional.
Justice Maureen Onyetenu held the above position in the judgement she delivered on the suit filed by one of the participants in the protest and a Lagos based lawyer Olukoya Ogungbeje against the Federal Government of Nigeria and her security agents for spraying tear-gas on him and other protesters in a peaceful protest.
Consequently, the court awarded a sum of N1 million against the Federal Government of Nigeria for wrongful disruption of the peaceful protest and teargassing the applicant.
Justice Onyetenu specifically awarded the said sum of N1 million in favour of Olukoya Ogungbeje, who told the court that he participated in the #RevolutionNow protest and was among those tear-gassed by security agents.
Descending on the Nigerian government, the presiding judge declared the disruption of the peaceful protest by the government, through the police, as “illegal, oppressive, undemocratic and unconstitutional.”
She agreed with the submission of Ogungbeje who sued on behalf of himself and other participants in the protest, that the Nigerian government deprived them of their right to peaceful assembly and association, thereby violated Sections 38, 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution.
Furthermore, Justice Onyetenu condemned “the mass arrest, harassment, tear-gassing, and clamping into detention” of the protesters.
In the suit, Ogungbeje had prayed the court to award him N500 million as general and exemplary damages against the Federal Government, DSS and the Attorney General of the Federation, but the court only awarded N1 million in his favour.
However the court upheld the defence of the DSS which argued that it was not involved in the disruption of the protest.
According to the affidavit filed in support of his application, Ogungbeje averred that when he was co-opted into the #RevolutionNow protest, as a lawyer, he checked the constitution and found that it was lawful.
According to the applicant, “On getting to the take-off point of the protest in Lagos, I met agents and operatives of the respondents who had barricaded the venue of the peaceful protest for good governance in Nigeria.
“I was tear-gassed by agents of the respondents and the peaceful protest was forcefully disrupted by the respondents.
“I have been denied my fundamental constitutional rights of peaceful assembly and association by the respondents, without cause.”
Aside the awarded N1 million the court also ordered the federal government to tender a public apology to the applicant in three national daily newspapers.
Recall that the nationwide protest was organized by the Publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore, who was arrested by the Department of State Services, DSS, on August 3.
