Earlier this year, a state high court sitting in Owerri presided over by His Lordship Hon. Justice ACP Nosiri awarded damages of N2m in favour of my client in a fundamental rights suit I filed on his behalf against the inspector General of police and others, including a police officer attached to Tiger base Owerri, for his illegal detention.
Just last week again, another high court sitting in Owerri Presided by Hon. Justice P. U. Nnodum delivered judgement in favour of my client and awarded damages against a military man in a suit I also filed on behalf of a client whose father in law (a military man) was using the instrumentality of the military to intimidate and harass my client over a marital dispute involving my client and his wife.
We have been actively involved in being defenders of rights of Nigerians. Despite our efforts and that of comrades alike, and despite a plethora of decisions against state actors as it relates to violation of fundamental rights, abuse of fundamental rights continue to plague our society, and the masses are beginning to resort to self help.
Just recently, a DPO in Kano was lynched because a suspect who was hale and hearty when he was arrested and kept in his custody suddenly died. The youths who caused his death had alleged that he had tortured the young man to death, and so, in an apparent quest for immediate justice, fueled by rage and disregard for the police, they murdered him.
The DPO in question, Baba Ali, is not new to fundamental rights violations. Baba Ali’s name was already etched in the public record of extrajudicial police violence in Nigeria. In July 2020, while serving as DPO in Bauchi Township, he and his team arrested three young men named Abdulwahab Bello, Ibrahim Babangida, and Ibrahim Samaila, over an accusation of chicken theft. What followed was a chilling act of state-sponsored brutality.
The suspects were tied to a tree behind the police station and beaten with a pestle across their legs, arms, chests, and ankles. Two of them—Babangida and Samaila—died from the injuries. The third, Bello, barely survived but was left physically and psychologically scarred. This wasn’t a rumour. It was proven in a court of law. In March 2021, the Federal High Court in Bauchi awarded about ₦ 100 million in damages against Baba Ali, the Inspector General of Police, the Bauchi State Commissioner of Police, and others. Justice Hassan Dikko described the act as “callous, cruel, and uncivilised.” The Court of Appeal upheld the ruling in 2023. The record is there. The judgment is public. The legal truth was established. Yet, Baba Ali was not dismissed. He was not prosecuted. He was transferred. Recycled. Reinforced by the same system that should have held him accountable.
While the Nation presumably mourns his death, a disturbing video has surfaced online. It shows Baba Ali being lynched by a mob in Rano. The footage is raw and horrifying. A man in uniform, begging, struggling, and eventually falling under the weight of an enraged crowd. It is an image no society should ever jettison, and no human being, regardless of their offence, should suffer such a fate. Let it be said clearly: no one wishes death upon anyone.
Baba Ali was a man, not just a uniform, and whatever judgment the courts may have delivered about his actions, his death is still a tragic event. Our hearts go out to his family, who are now forced to grieve under the shadow of public scorn and private loss.
This is a call to the leadership of the various security agencies to act decisively against individuals that continue to bring to shame the good efforts they make. It is Baba Ali today, it might be another person. Let the leadership of the security agencies bring back accountability so that the love, trust and respect we have for our security agencies will be reinvigorated.
~Ekezie K. Onumajulu Esq. Legal Practitioner & Human Rights Advocate. 2/6/25
