ACN Commends Judiciary On Judgment Against Police

SAN FRANCISCO, March 05, (THEWILL) - The ACN in Osun state has expressed delight with the judgment of the Federal High Court in Lokoja, Kogi state, which found the Police culpable of violating the constitutional rights of its members to freely assemble in Abuja in support of their leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was appearing before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

The ACN from Lagos and Osun had gone to court to challenge police action in disallowing its members from entering Abuja through Lokoja, to support their leader, Asiwaju Tinubu, between September and October 2010.

In the ruling by Justice Akwo of the Federal High Court in Lokoja last weekend, the judge held that Police acted against the law by detaining, molesting and preventing the ACN members from Lagos and Osun states and denying them access into Abuja. The Judge described the police action as tantamount to "executive recklessness, reckless show of power and lack of constitutional spirit."

As a consequence, the judge declared the police guilty of gross misconduct and awarded the sums of N5 million and N6 million in damages respectively to the victims from Osun and Lagos.

Reacting to this development, ACN Director of Publicity and Strategy, Barrister Kunle Oyatomi said that, "this judgment will go down as a watershed in the desperate struggles of Nigerians against the misuse of the police by the PDP-led Federal Government on critics and opposition parties and their leaders, which in the last 12 years has been a disgusting feature of our democratic experiment."

He also described the judgment as a restoration of hope that there is a tiny window of opportunity left for the rule of law to prevail in the country. He therefore called on the Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubakar, to follow through with the judgment and ensure that his reformation of the police includes insulating it from political manipulation and misuse as an instrument of intimidation by the ruling elite.

“The Police, which should enforce the law and protect the rights of citizens, should not promote lawlessness and allow itself to be used by unscrupulous politicians to violate the rights of citizens or molest them in any way whatsoever.”