The Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police have been ordered to pay N10 million in damages by the Federal High Court in Lagos for violating the rights of EndSARS demonstrators.
Applicants who took part in the fourth anniversary of the peaceful memorial procession for #ENDSARS filed the lawsuit.
Musa Kakaki, the judge, declared in his ruling on Thursday, July 24, that the applicants’ rights had been infringed and they had been subjected to unreasonable harassment.
He said that the applicants’ constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of assembly and association had been infringed upon and that they had been unfairly harassed at a nonviolent demonstration on October 20, 2024.
According to the judge, the police must use their constitutionally granted authority to enforce the law in a way that upholds democratic values and the rule of law.
The applicants’ constitutional right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association was upheld by the judge.
The lawsuit against the police was brought by Akin Okunowon and twenty-one other people, including Hassan Taiwo Soweto, Uadiale Kingsley, and Funmilayo Jolade Ajayi.
The lawsuit also included the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), the Take It Back Movement (TIB), and the Campaign for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR).
The Intercept reported that operatives of the Lagos State Police Command arrested 22 #EndSARS memorial protesters on Sunday, October 20.
The police also dispersed scores of protesters who gathered for the memorial.
A Lagos police officer is detained for assaulting an Uber driver in a widely shared video.
The purpose of the protest was to pay tribute to the victims of the 2020 anti-police brutality demonstrations.
But when police officers arrived on the scene and started shooting tear gas canisters, the mood grew tense.
Twenty-two of the demonstrators were subsequently taken away by them.
Demanding the full implementation of the reports from the judicial panels of inquiry established following the 2020 protests, the primarily young protesters gathered at 8:30 a.m. with banners and placards.
Inibehe Effiong, a human rights attorney, acknowledged that the 22 demonstrators were eventually freed.
