Anambra: Court directs bank, police to compensate nursing mother, N2.2m

<p>The Federal High Court sitting in Awka, the Anambra State capital, has ordered Isuofia Micro Finance Bank Ltd and the police to pay the sum of #2,200,000 (Two Million, Two Hundred Thousand Naira) to Ohadugha Gloria Chizara, a nursing mother, for unlawful arrest and detention with her six-month-old baby at Okpoko Police cell.</p>, <p>The case with suit No: FHC/ Awka / CS/ 121 /2022 was between Ohadugha Gloria Chizara, the applicant, and Isuofia Micro Finance Bank Ltd, Nwafor Okechukwu, Nwoke Ifeoma, the Commissioner of Police Anambra State, Ugochukwu Ugbo, the Divisional Police Officer of Okpoko, and Inspector Chinelo Okechi (I.P.O) as respondents.</p>, <p>Counsel for the applicant, F.N Asogwa ESq of His Grace Chambers, in her application of fundamental rights, prayed the court for an order for the respondents to pay her client the sum of (N100,000,000) One Hundred Million Naira as compensation, as well as general damages for “violating her fundamental rights to life, dignity of human persons, right to personal liberty, and freedom of movement from June 22, 2022, till June 24, 2022, at the Okpoko Police cell in Anambra State.</p>, <p>She also prayed the court that the respondents should pay #50,000,000 (Fifty Million Naira) to her client as exemplary damages for “violating, infringing, and breaching her client’s fundamental rights to life.”</p>, <p>The counsel also asked that the respondents should be restrained, along with their privies, agents, or cohorts, from “violating, infringing, and breaching her client’s fundamental right to life, dignity of human persons, right to personal liberty, and freedom of movement as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution,” among other reliefs.</p>, <p>Delivering judgment in the matter, the presiding Judge, Justice F. I. Riman, directed the Police, the bank, Nwafor Okechukwu, and Nwoke Ifeoma to pay the nursing mother the sum of N2m.</p>, <p>The Judge also ordered the respondents to pay two hundred thousand naira (N200,000) as exemplary damages for violating, infringing, and b