Following a suit filed at a Federal High Court, Lagos, on March 24,
by the national leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Bola
Tinubu restraining the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Kenneth
Minimah on human rights infringement, the court has given a date for
hearing.
The
Federal High Court on Tuesday adjourned hearing on the fundamental
rights’ enforcement suit filed by former governor of Lagos state through
his lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) till April 20.
Tinubu
reportedly sued Minimah over the deployment of soldiers to lay siege on
his No. 26 Bourdillon Street, Ikoyi, Lagos home, between February 9 and
February 11, 2015.
Justice John Tsoho, had on March 26, granted
an interim injunction, restraining the military from further laying
siege on Tinubu’s home as well as halt any possible arrest or detention
of the APC chieftain during the period of the general elections.
The
judge adjourned to hear the substantive suit after granting the order,
but at the resumed hearing on Tuesday, only the applicant’s counsel, Mr
Chukwuma Onwuemene, who was holding brief for Mr Femi Falana (SAN), was
in court.
Onwuemene
prayed the court for a short adjournment for the hearing of the
substantive suit since Minimah was not represented in court.
Tsoho
recalled that the applicant had already secured an interim injunction
shielding him from arrest and intimidation by the military, adding that
the court could not give any date before the Easter vacation.
The justice, therefore, adjourned hearing to April 20, 2015.
Tinubu
is praying the court to declare that the military siege on his house
was an infringement on his fundamental human rights to private and
family life protected under Section 37 of the Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He also wants the military’s action
considered as a violation of sections 35 and 42 of the Constitution as
well as Articles 2 and 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples
Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.
Tinubu claimed that the military siege on his house caused him and his family ‘psychological and mental torture.’
His personal assistant, Sunday Dare, who deposed to an affidavit in support of the action, told the court that: “the
applicant was exposed to embarrassment as many members of the public
asked whether he committed any offence, which could have warranted the
siege. That the siege portrayed him as a hardened criminal in the
society.”
The political tension that accompanied the just
concluded Presidential and House of Assembly elections, and the fear of
the ruling party clamping down on strong opposition members like Tinubu,
made the ex-governor to approach the federal high court to obtain legal
backing against the military.
The military had earlier in
February laid siege on the national leader’s house for no reason, a
development the military had vehemently denied.
The opposition
national leaders’ fear is not unconnected with the military clampdown
experienced they had during the Ekiti State governorship election that
brought in the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Ayodele Fayose as the
state governor after defeating the then incumbent governor, Kayode
Fayemi of the All Progressive Congress.
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