Judgment
ABUBAKAR SADIQ UMAR, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This is an appeal against the judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/250/2018 delivered on 23rd May 2018 by I.N. BUBA J. wherein the learned trial Judge dismissed the Appellant’s application for the enforcement of his fundamental rights.
BRIEF STATEMENT OF FACTS The case of the Appellant as can be gleaned from his affidavit in support of his originating summons is that the 3rd Respondent invested in his business of small money remittance services in the United Kingdom with the agreement that the 3rd Respondent would be paid a monthly sum as returns/profits on the investment sum. That the 3rd Respondent paid a total of £40,000 (Forty Thousand Pounds Sterling) to him over a period of three years commencing from 2012.
According to the Appellant’s narrative, his business temporarily shut down sometime in 2015 due to heavy losses recorded as a result of the exchange rate problem. The Appellant stated that he informed the 3rd Respondent about this issue and further informed her that in the meantime he was going to Nigeria to further his education at the Nigeria Law School.
That in the process of registering for a resit exam in Abuja, he got an invitation from the office of the 1st and 2nd Respondents which invitation he honoured on 12th February 2017 and there he was informed of the 3rd Respondent’s petition against him. The Appellant stated that he was interrogated in respect of the 3rd Respondent’s petition wherein she alleged that he defrauded her in respect of the business transaction in the United Kingdom.
It was the Appellant’s case that he gave a detailed explanation of the business transaction entered into between himself and the 3rd Respondent and the outcome of the transaction. At the end of the interrogation, the Appellant deposed in his affidavit that he was detained for two weeks by the 1st and 2nd Respondents without being charged to Court for any offence.
That while in detention, he pleaded that he be released on bail but his request was refused until he was subsequently released on administrative bail on 23rd February 2017. The Appellant deposited his Nigerian and British passports with the 1st and 2nd Respondents as one of the conditions for his bail which he considered stringent.
