A federal high court in Abuja has
ruled that the Nigerian army has no powers to declare any citizen wanted.
Ijeoma Ojukwu, the judge,
delivered the ruling in a case marked FHC/ABJ/CS/267/2019 between one Issa
Perry Brimah, a Nigerian activist in diaspora and the Nigerian Army.
In January 2019, the army
declared Brimah wanted for reportedly raising funds for troops and vigilantes
fighting Boko Haram insurgents in the north-east.
Brimah had launched a GoFundMe
campaign to raise funds to provide food for the soldiers in that part of the
country.
But the army described his
actions as “fraudulent” and said he embarked on the venture “ostensibly to
defraud unsuspecting members of the public, especially the international
community to fund subversive activities and personal lifestyle”.
Following the declaration, Brimah
filed a suit against the army for alleged defamation.
Brimah said he was suing “on
behalf of millions of disenfranchised citizens of the state who have often been
intimidated and terrorized by the Nigerian army in flaunting of the
constitution by act of willfully declaring citizens wanted and making arrests
within the democratic space in the stead of the police, the formal law
enforcers”.
Delivering the ruling, Ojukwu
held that the army had no right to declare the plaintiff wanted without making
a formal report to law enforcement agencies, who enforce law and order.
“The army or defendant has no
vires to declare the plaintiff wanted without due process of law,” she said.
“However, it must be stated here
without equivocation that the defendant has no right to declare the plaintiff
wanted without following the appropriate procedure.
“The defendant cannot arrest the
plaintiff arbitrarily without making a formal report to law enforcement agency
with the mandate to enforce law and order, otherwise it would transmute to
self-help. The duty of the defendant is to make a formal report to the
appropriate authority like the police and await the outcome.”
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