Police Brutality: Journalist to Get N100 Million in Damages

One Desmond Utonwen, a Senior Correspondent
with The News Magazine has been awarded
N100 million as damages by an Abuja High Court
sitting in Apo, Abuja. Utonwen was on December
11, 2009, brutalised by men of the Nigeria Police
Force, NPF.
The court which was presided over by Justice U.
P. Kekemeke , maintained that the attack, the
beating to unconsciousness, bundling into Police
vehicle and detention of the applicant for many
hours without access to medical treatment, was
inhuman and degrading and thus amounted to a
violation of his right as enshrined in Section 34 of
the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria.
Utonwen had gone before the court to enforce
his fundamental human right, after he was
severely beaten by policemen when he
attempted to cover a protest that broke out at
Garki Area 3, Abuja, in 2009. Though Justice
Kekemeke concluded hearing on the matter on
July 12, the judgment was handed down on
October 4.
The Court ordered Police to pay N100 million as
special damages for their wrongful act, as well as,
immediately return all the items seized from the
journalist.