The late Mustapha Muhammed
Court orders police to pay N50m to man’s family for torturing him to death
Justice Y.M. Ubale of the Kano State High Court has ordered the police to pay N50million damages to the family of a 28-year-old man, Mustapha Muhammad, who was tortured to death in the cell of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS.
Abba Hikima, a Kano-based human rights lawyer, had in October 2019, sued the police for torturing the deceased to death and concealing information about his death.
He had demanded for N100 million as damages among nine other reliefs.
Joined in the suit were the Inspector General of Police; the officer in charge of the defunct SARS, SP Uba Bangajiya and; the officer investigating the case, Inspector Garba Galadima in the suit.
Delivering judgement, the presiding judge granted nine out of 10 reliefs sought and awarded N50million damages to the deceased’s family.
Justice Ubale also held that the act of concealing the death of the deceased to his family amounted to deprivation of his religious rights, which as a Muslim, required that he be hastily buried.
The lawyer had in his submission argued that SARS tortured Muhammed to death but refused to inform the family and kept receiving food and money for him several days after his death.
He had prayed the court to declare that the torture and killing of Muhammad by the police without recourse to the law amounted to unlawful, arbitrary and unconstitutional contravention of the fundamental rights of the deceased protected by sections 34 and 33 of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) respectively.
Hikima also sought a declaration that the torture and killing by the police without recourse to the law amounted to unlawful, arbitrary and unconstitutional contravention of the fundamental rights of the deceased protected by sections 33 and 34 of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
He had therefore sought an order of the court to award the sum of N100,000,000 as damages payable by the police to the deceased through his family.
Abdulkarim Muhammad, a brother of the deceased, had in his affidavit in support of the application, said the police did not inform any member of the deceased’s family of his brother’s alleged sickness.
He said his brother died on September 14, 2019 as shown in the mortuary register but the police told the family that he died on September 27, 2019.
He said the SARS officers lied that Mr Muhammad died of stomachache, and went further to procure a fake medical certificate to cover their tracks.
