Abuja Court Orders Immediate Release Of IPOB Member; Orders IGP To Apologise, Pay For Right Violation

A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Gudu District of Abuja on Thursday ordered the Inspector-General of Police and its Intelligence Response Team to immediately and unconditionally release a member of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Jude Obasi.

While asking the IGP and the IRT to immediately tender an unreserved apology in two national Newspapers to Obasi, Justice Modupe Osho-Adebiyi consequently awarded the sum of N5 million as reparation for the gross violation of the fundamental Rights of Obasi.

The court gave the judgment in a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by his team of lawyers led by Ifeanyi Ejiofor.

Obasi was said to have been arrested on the night March 31 2021 from his residence at Nnewi, Anambra State on suspicion of being a member of IPOB and kept in their solitary confinement without access to his lawyers, relatives and family members.

Reacting to the judgment, Ejiofor said every mechanism would be put in place to ensure that the judgment was obeyed.

He said, “Be assured that we shall activate all the machinery of the law to ensure that this judgement is obeyed to the letter and most promptly.

“There is no hiding place for a golden fish. This is an order of the court and it must be obeyed, and terms stipulated thereat must also be complied with in full.