A Federal High Court, sitting in Lagos, has ordered the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, to pay one Lawrence Ejiofor the sum of N2m as compensation for his prolonged and unlawful detention by the agency.
According to the presiding Judge, Justice Mohammed Yunusa, the judgment debt will be borne by NDLEA alongside the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which the court also found culpable of having a hand in the violation of Ejiofor’s fundamental human rights.
Ejiofor had approached the court through his lawyer, Dr. Chima Nnaji, seeking a declaration that his detention by the two agencies for over 30 days without trial was unlawful. He also asked the court to order the NDLEA to return to him a sum of $96,500 seized from him at the airport while returning from a trip to Tanzania.
According to Nnaji, his client was arrested by operatives of the NDLEA for money laundering on April 16, 2015, on the suspicion that the money found on him was a proceed of drug-trafficking.
Nnaji also said Ejiofor was not allowed to declare the foreign currency at the Nigerian Customs Service Declaration Point, as required by law, adding that instead, NDLEA officials arrested the applicant for money laundering, on the ground that they suspected the money to be proceeds of drug business.
Continuing, Nnaji said that after detaining him for over 30 days, they handed him over to the EFCC for further investigation. The EFCC however released him when they found out that he was not involved in money laundering but held on to his money.
The lawyer sought a declaration that searching the applicant at the arrival tube before being able to declare the foreign currency on him was illegal as it violated his right to freedom from compulsory acquisition of moveable property, as guaranteed under Section 44 of the 1999 Constitution, praying the court to hold that the continued seizure of the $96,500 for several months was unconstitutional.
Ejiofor sought for N20m as compensation for his unlawful detention from April 16 to May 16, 2014.
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