NCS BOARD & ORS v. OGUNSINA

Judgment

UGOCHUKWU ANTHONY OGAKWU, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment) : The Respondent herein was the Applicant at the Federal High Court, Abeokuta Division in an application for the enforcement of fundamental rights. The facts of the matter as presented by the Respondent in the processes filed at the lower Court disclose that on or about the 25th day of January, 2019, the officers of the Appellants herein, Respondents at the lower Court, carried out an anti-smuggling operation at the Owode Area of Ogun State.

In the course of the operation, the officers allegedly ransacked the shops of the traders in the area, including that of the Respondent’s deceased sister, Serifat Ogunsina, who was alleged to have been shot dead in the course of the operation and her corpse was taken to the State Hospital, Ota, by Police Officers. ​The case of the Appellants, as Respondents at the lower Court was a denial of the allegations as to what allegedly transpired on 25th January, 2019.

They however asserted that they carried out an operation on 21st January, 2019 at the Celestial Church of Christ, Owode, in order to seize smuggled foreign parboiled rice which intelligence reports disclosed were loaded in about 50 vehicles coming to Owode from Ado Odo Creek. It is their case that upon arrival at Celestial Church of Christ, Owode, some hoodlums who were armed with dangerous weapons attacked them and that in consequence, their officers fired shots in the air to disperse the crowd of attackers.

They maintain that nobody was injured or killed as a result of the shots that were fired in the air. It is premised on these set of facts that the Respondent instituted proceedings before the lower Court in SUIT NO. FHC/AB/FHR/2/2020: MRS. MUTIAT OGUNSINA (Suing as Next of Kin on behalf of Serifat Ogunsina, The Deceased) vs. NIGERIA CUSTOMS SERVICE BOARD & ORS.

The Respondent claimed the following reliefs: (a) A DECLARATION that the arrest, torture and extra-judicial killing of the Applicant’s deceased sister (late Serifat Ogunsina) by the Customs Officers attached to Idiroko Area Command of Ogun State agents of the Respondents on the 25th of January, 2019 at Owode Area of Ogun State without any Court order is illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional and a gross violation of the Applicant’s deceased brother [sic] constitutional right to life, dignity of human person and fair hearing as enshrined under Section 33, 34 and 36 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the African Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (b) AN ORDER DIRECTING the IMMEDIATE PROSECUTION of the culpable Customs officers attached to the Idiroko Area Command for the unlawful and extra-judicial killing of the Applicant’s deceased sister (late Serifat Ogunsina) on the 25th of January, 2019 at Owode Area of Ogun State without any order of Court. (c) AN ORDER compelling the Respondents to jointly and severally issue a Public Apology in three (3) widely circulated Newspaper publications and to pay the sum of N500, 000,000.00 (Five Hundred Million Naira) only as GENERAL and EXEMPLARY DAMAGES in favour of the Applicant and his family for the unlawful and extra-judicial killing of the Applicant’s deceased sister (late Serifat Ogunsina) without any order of the Court. (d) AN ORDER OF PERPETUAL INJUNCTION restraining the Respondents jointly and severally whether by themselves, their agents, officers, officials, privies, servants or anyone else claiming or deriving authority from them from harassing, intimidating, inviting, arresting, detaining or disturbing the Applicant in connection with the facts of this case.