September 14, 2008
CHIEF PETER FENTON APPIO ... … ... ... PLAINTIFF
A N D
CHIEF FEMI FANI-KAYODE ... .... .... ... DEFENDANT
STATEMENT OF CLAIM
1. The Plaintiff is a Legal Practitioner of some 26 years standing, and is also a barrister called to the England and Wales Bar in 1986.
2. The Defendant is a political journalist. From July 2006 to October 2006 he was the Minister of Tourism and Culture in the government led by President Olusegun Obasanjo. On the 6th of November 2006, the Defendant was appointed Minister of Aviation, a position that he held until the Obasanjo administration ended on the 29th of May 2007.
3. In October 2006, the Defendant requested the Plaintiff to assist him by organizing meetings with influential persons and institutions in London, which the Plaintiff agreed to do as part of an effort to raise Nigeria’s tourism profile. While the Plaintiff was engaged in collecting the necessary background to meet this request in Nigeria, the Defendant arranged for him to be accommodated at the Command Guest House in Abuja.
4. On the 29th of October 2006, the Plaintiff accompanied the Defendant and his three daughters to Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport where the children were to board a flight to Lagos preparatory to returning to their United Kingdom boarding schools. The Plaintiff had advanced £15,000 to the said children’s mother, Yemisi Wada, who was the Defendant’s second wife, to pay their school fees when the Defendant had refused to pay maintenance to her on the 26th of May 2006. The Plaintiff had also advanced a further £8,550 to Beneden School in Kent, United Kingdom to cover the school fees of the said Yemisi Wada’s step-daughter.
5. While on the way to the airport, the Defendant received a telephone call to the effect that an ADC airline had crashed near the airport shortly after taking off for Sokoto, and upon reaching the airport at 1 p.m., the news was confirmed. The Plaintiff prevailed on the Defendant not to follow his first inclination, which was to accompany his daughters to Lagos as they were upset by the news of the crash, but impressed upon him that as the only representative of the Federal Government on the scene, it was his duty to go to the scene of the crash.
6. As a result of the Plaintiff’s advice, the Defendant went to the scene of the crash and made a direct report by telephone to President Obasanjo who was then at Otta, in Ogun State. It proved impossible to contact the then Minister of Aviation, Dr. Babalola Borishade, and it was therefore the Defendant who was on the scene as rescue efforts continued and the recovery of the bodies of the passengers who had perished in the crash was taking place. The Defendant was interviewed by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) at the scene in a report that was seen both across Nigeria and worldwide when it was rebroadcast by Cable Network News (CNN).
7. As a result of his performance and this exposure (which was the direct result of the Plaintiff’s advice to him to visit the scene of the crash), President Obasanjo appointed the Defendant Minister of Aviation.
8. In recognition of the Plaintiff’s role in his having been so appointed, at a meeting in his residence on Sunday 5th November 2006, the Defendant invited the Plaintiff to be his Special Adviser. The Plaintiff emphasized that as he and the Defendant had just witnessed the effects of corruption and inefficiency in the aviation sector, he would only accept the position if the Defendant intended to do a good and honest job. When the Defendant confirmed that his instruction from the President was “to effect real change and clean up the system”, the Plaintiff accepted the position of Special Adviser to the Defendant, Minister of Aviation.
9. The Defendant, together with the Plaintiff as Special Adviser, resumed duty at the Ministry of Aviation on Monday 6th November 2006. The following day the Plaintiff was issued a business card detailing his position, while on the 8th of November, at a press conference held at the Abuja Sheraton Hotel & Towers, which was televised by the NTA, the Defendant introduced the Plaintiff as his Special Adviser.
10. Despite the Defendant’s confirmation that he had instructions to ‘clean up the system’, the Plaintiff found right from the outset that the Defendant had no compunction about using his position for his own personal benefit as hereinafter stated:
a) On or about the 7th of November 2007, the Defendant instructed the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), one Muhammad Yusufu, to ‘find N40 million’ to buy luxury cars for himself and his friends.
b) The Defendant instructed that the said luxury cars should be purchased from one David B. Okorodudu of Car Link, at 23a Adeyemo Alakija Street, Victoria Island in Lagos.
c) Although the type of vehicles that were being discussed were luxury cars such as Range Rover or Lexus Jeep, the Plaintiff requested that he be supplied with the standard government 406 and driver, a request that caused derisive merriment among the 1st Defendant and others present.
11. Further to the matters pleaded in paragraph 10 herein, the Defendant, who has a history of having been addicted to ‘crack’ cocaine, spent long periods when he was unavailable, being locked up inside his office either alone (after which there would be a noticeable smell of air-freshener as there used to be at his Apapa, Lagos State residence when he had been using ‘crack’ cocaine), or at other times, ensconced and unavailable inside his office with his young female Personal Assistant, Chioma.
12. In addition to the matters pleaded in paragraph 10 herein, the Defendant was erratic, bad-tempered and abrasive, and made a habit of using rude and insulting language to everybody, no matter what their position, whether staff of the Ministry of Aviation, representatives of foreign countries or any other persons who had business with the Ministry.
13. In addition to setting the example pleaded in paragraph 12 herein, the Defendant failed to exercise proper disciplinary control over his staff. On the very first day that the Defendant and the Plaintiff resumed duty at the Ministry of Aviation, one of the Defendant’s security escorts pulled out and fired two rounds of his Browning 9mm ‘High Power’ pistol outside the entrance to the Ministry during an altercation with security officials of the Ministry. The Defendant’s response was to simply shout at the erring security official in public by way of ‘dressing down’, but no disciplinary action whatsoever was taken against him for such unauthorised and dangerous use of firearms.
14. By reason of the matters pleaded in paragraphs 10-13 herein, the Plaintiff realised that as the Defendant did not appear to have any serious intention of running the Ministry under his control in the clean manner that he had claimed he would, it would be difficult, if not impossible for him (the Plaintiff) to continue working with the Defendant and that moreover, his unwillingness to join the Defendant and others in using the public funds of the Ministry for personal gain or advantage would make him a target for the bad temper, abuse and insults that the Defendant was increasingly free at handing out.
15. In the circumstances, by a text message to the Defendant on the 12th of November 2006, the Plaintiff advised the Defendant that he no longer wished to occupy the position of Special Adviser, and the Defendant sent back a text message accepting the Plaintiff’s resignation. In the same text message, the Plaintiff informed the Defendant that President Obasanjo had given approval in principle to a loan from the United Bank for Africa plc. to upgrade the nation’s air traffic control and airport facilities. Although the Plaintiff requested a meeting with the Defendant to agree a statement about his resignation for release, the Defendant declined to hold such a meeting.
16. During the course of the week during which he occupied the position of Special Adviser to the Defendant as Minister of Aviation, the Plaintiff attended several meetings and briefings, and carried out several assignments in his capacity as Special Adviser. In particular, as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was then in Nigeria carrying out a safety audit, the Plaintiff arranged that a meeting should be held between them and the Defendant on Monday 13th November at 2.00 pm at which the ICAO would present its findings on the country’s compliance with safety standards to the Defendant.
17. The Plaintiff had also arranged a meeting with the representatives of Air France who were seeking an increase in the airline’s landing slots in Lagos due to the closure of Port Harcourt airport.
18. Following his resignation, the Plaintiff sent text messages to the Defendant to remind him of the meetings fixed for Monday the 13th of November 2006 with Air France and the ICAO, to none of which did he receive any reply.
19. Accordingly, on the 13th of November, the Plaintiff went to the Ministry to inform the Permanent Secretary of his resignation, and to brief him about the meetings. While clearing his desk, the Plaintiff requested, through the Defendant’s Personal Assistant Chioma, that he be given an official minute reflecting his resignation, but Chioma later advised the Plaintiff that the Defendant had declined to issue such a minute on the ground that the Plaintiff had not been ‘formally appointed’. The Plaintiff thereupon left the Ministry of Aviation.
20. On the 14th of November the Plaintiff was informed by the management of the Command Guest House that the Defendant had called to instruct that he should leave the premises immediately, an order with which the Plaintiff complied and sought temporary shelter with a friend Etubom Bassey Ekpo Bassey.
21. The Plaintiff thereafter telephoned the said Yemisi Wada to ask that at least part of the total of £23,550 which he had advanced for the payment of school fees as aforesaid should be repaid to him, and upon her undertaking to send N100,000.00 to him immediately, the Plaintiff moved to the Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Abuja on Friday the 17th of November 2006. The said Yemisi however, later telephoned to tell the Plaintiff that the money had been transferred to Skye Bank in Abuja and could be collected on Monday the 20th of November.
22. As a result, the Plaintiff had no funds to deposit against his hotel expenses, and despite his having the said Yemisi Wada telephone the management of the hotel to confirm that the said N100,000.00 had indeed been sent and would be available for collection the following Monday, and despite the Plaintiff offering his passports and other security, the hotel refused to accept these. When the Plaintiff, who had been a frequent guest at the said hotel over the past fifteen years, resisted the hotel’s subsequent attempt to eject him, he was arrested and taken to Zone 3 Police Station and the Plaintiff says that this was done at the Defendant’s instigation.
23. Following the intervention of a friend of the Plaintiff, Etubom Bassey Ekpo Bassey, the Plaintiff returned to the Command Guest House where he was unable to book accommodation immediately due to a meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party, but was assured of a room later. Later that night however, the manager of the Guest House appeared with two soldiers who threw the Plaintiff’s bags out onto the street and ejected him from the Guest House. As the Plaintiff protested, the manager of the Guest House informed him that the soldiers had been sent on the Defendant’s instructions, and that there was nothing that he could do.
24. The Plaintiff having been thus ejected onto the road, was attempting to hail a taxi when he was suddenly assaulted by the said soldiers who proceed to tear off his jacket (from which they stole a sum of N10,000 in cash) and whip him with their belts. While this assault was taking place, one Deremi Ajidahun, who is the Defendant’s cousin, arrived with an officer of the State Security Service (SSS). They and the two soldiers then forced the Plaintiff into their vehicle, claiming to have instructions from the Defendant to this effect, and drove him to the Presidential Clinic where they attempted to have him admitted by telling the doctor on duty that the Plaintiff had ‘gone mad’. The said doctor refused to admit the Plaintiff on the ground that there was nothing wrong with the Plaintiff.
25. The said Ajidahun, SSS officer and soldiers then bundled the Plaintiff out of the Presidential clinic and after a telephone call to the Defendant, proceeded to drive around Abuja for over one and a half hours, all the while abusing the Plaintiff and physically assaulting the Plaintiff, beating him and punching him with their fists and kicking him with their feet.
26. The Plaintiff says that the said assaults were carried out with the specific intention of provoking a crisis in him so that it would be possible to have him admitted to a hospital or other facility against his will. During the whole ninety minutes when he was being driven around Abuja, the said Ajidahun was in constant telephone communication with the Defendant, and the Plaintiff says that he understood from the snatches of the conversation that he heard, that the Defendant was making arrangements to ensure that he would be admitted and confined in an hospital that night.
27. After over an hour and a half of being driven around Abuja while being assaulted and abused, the Plaintiff was taken to the National Hospital where his personal property was taken from him and removed by the said Ajidahun, while he was admitted and detained on a diagnosis of bi-polar affective disorder. The Plaintiff was then put on a regime of drugs to treat the alleged condition.
28. The Plaintiff was detained at the National Hospital in Abuja from the 19th of November to the 18th of December 2006 on the instructions of the Defendant, and was repeatedly told by the said Ajidahun that the Defendant had instructed that he should not be released unless he was willing to leave Nigeria.
29. In the circumstances, and in order to regain his freedom, the Plaintiff agreed to leave Nigeria, and on the 18th of December 2006 was flown to the United Kingdom in the company of the Chief Psychiatrist of the National Hospital, Dr. (Mrs.) Olusola T. Ephraim-Oluwanuga FWACP and one Donu Kogbara, a mutual friend of the Plaintiff and the Defendant.
30. Upon arrival in the United Kingdom, the said Dr. Ephraim-Oluwanuga insisted that the Plaintiff be taken straight to the Chelsea and Westminster, Accident and Emergency where he was seen by a doctor and two psychiatrists. Although Dr. Ephraim-Oluwanuga insisted that the Plaintiff should be admitted, the said doctor and psychiatrists refused to do so because in their opinion, the Plaintiff ‘presented as normal’.
31. As a result of the insistence of Dr. Ephraim-Oluwanuga however, a consultation was arranged for the following day with a senior consultant psychiatrist at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, and the Plaintiff stayed at a nearby hotel overnight.
32. At the meeting the following day which had been fixed for 1.00 p.m., Dr. Ephraim-Oluwanuga failed to honour the appointment. In the circumstances, the Plaintiff was examined by the senior consultant psychiatrist who informed the Plaintiff that he did not agree with the diagnosis of bipolar affective disorder, and that he should discontinue the medication that had been prescribed by Dr. Ephraim-Oluwanuga as it was outdated and inappropriate.
33. Dr. Ephraim-Oluwanuga did not arrive until 3.00 p.m., having elected to use her travel allowance to do some ‘Christmas shopping’ prior to returning to Nigeria that evening. The Senior Consultant however, refused to see her at that stage and made an appointment for a follow-up visit on the 16th of March 2007, leaving the Plaintiff free to return home. At the said meeting the Plaintiff was given a total discharge and told to immediately stop taking the drugs prescribed by Dr. Ephraim-Oluwanuga as they had “severe side-effects”.
34. Upon examining his belongings which had been seized from him when he was admitted at the National Hospital in Abuja, but returned to him when he was returning to the United Kingdom, the Plaintiff discovered that in addition to the N10,000 hereinbefore mentioned, the following items of personal property were also missing, namely:
(a) a Siemens/BenQ mobile phone valued at £200.00
(b) a brand new Nokia communicator valued at £600.00
(c) a pair of handmade Church's shoes valued at £250.00
(d) the Plaintiff’s Nigerian passport no. A0220310, with a United Kingdom permanent resident’s visa endorsed in it;
35. Whereupon the Plaintiff claims against the Defendants jointly and severally:-
(a) An Order directing the Defendants to return the Plaintiff’s Nigerian passport, no. A0220310;
(b) N75,000,000.00 being damages for assault committed on or about the 18th and 19th days of November 2006;
(c) N75,000,000.00 being damages for unlawful detention from the 19th of November to the 18th of December 2006;
(d) N272,500.00 being the naira equivalent of the value of the items of personal property and cash seized from the Plaintiff;
(e) Compound interest on the said sums from the 19th of November 2006 at the rate of 21% per annum until judgment or payment.
Dated this day of August 2008
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY
IN THE ABUJA JUDICIAL DIVISION
HOLDEN AT ABUJA
SUIT NO: FCT/ /2008
AYO OBE
OGUNSOLA SHONIBARE,
Plaintiff’s Legal Practitioners,
c/o Adesina Oke & Co.,
Plot 781 Herbert Macaulay Way,
Central Business District,
Abuja, FCT.
Or
Unity House (5th floor),
37 Marina, Lagos,
Lagos State.
For Service On:
The Defendant,
Femi Fani-Kayode,
c/o Seyi Sowemimo Esq., S.A.N.,
11 Sfax Street,
By NICON Staff Quarters,
Opp. Oando Oil,
Wuse, Zone 4,
Abuja, FCT.
A N D
CHIEF FEMI FANI-KAYODE ... .... .... ... DEFENDANT
STATEMENT OF CLAIM
1. The Plaintiff is a Legal Practitioner of some 26 years standing, and is also a barrister called to the England and Wales Bar in 1986.
2. The Defendant is a political journalist. From July 2006 to October 2006 he was the Minister of Tourism and Culture in the government led by President Olusegun Obasanjo. On the 6th of November 2006, the Defendant was appointed Minister of Aviation, a position that he held until the Obasanjo administration ended on the 29th of May 2007.
3. In October 2006, the Defendant requested the Plaintiff to assist him by organizing meetings with influential persons and institutions in London, which the Plaintiff agreed to do as part of an effort to raise Nigeria’s tourism profile. While the Plaintiff was engaged in collecting the necessary background to meet this request in Nigeria, the Defendant arranged for him to be accommodated at the Command Guest House in Abuja.
4. On the 29th of October 2006, the Plaintiff accompanied the Defendant and his three daughters to Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport where the children were to board a flight to Lagos preparatory to returning to their United Kingdom boarding schools. The Plaintiff had advanced £15,000 to the said children’s mother, Yemisi Wada, who was the Defendant’s second wife, to pay their school fees when the Defendant had refused to pay maintenance to her on the 26th of May 2006. The Plaintiff had also advanced a further £8,550 to Beneden School in Kent, United Kingdom to cover the school fees of the said Yemisi Wada’s step-daughter.
5. While on the way to the airport, the Defendant received a telephone call to the effect that an ADC airline had crashed near the airport shortly after taking off for Sokoto, and upon reaching the airport at 1 p.m., the news was confirmed. The Plaintiff prevailed on the Defendant not to follow his first inclination, which was to accompany his daughters to Lagos as they were upset by the news of the crash, but impressed upon him that as the only representative of the Federal Government on the scene, it was his duty to go to the scene of the crash.
6. As a result of the Plaintiff’s advice, the Defendant went to the scene of the crash and made a direct report by telephone to President Obasanjo who was then at Otta, in Ogun State. It proved impossible to contact the then Minister of Aviation, Dr. Babalola Borishade, and it was therefore the Defendant who was on the scene as rescue efforts continued and the recovery of the bodies of the passengers who had perished in the crash was taking place. The Defendant was interviewed by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) at the scene in a report that was seen both across Nigeria and worldwide when it was rebroadcast by Cable Network News (CNN).
7. As a result of his performance and this exposure (which was the direct result of the Plaintiff’s advice to him to visit the scene of the crash), President Obasanjo appointed the Defendant Minister of Aviation.
8. In recognition of the Plaintiff’s role in his having been so appointed, at a meeting in his residence on Sunday 5th November 2006, the Defendant invited the Plaintiff to be his Special Adviser. The Plaintiff emphasized that as he and the Defendant had just witnessed the effects of corruption and inefficiency in the aviation sector, he would only accept the position if the Defendant intended to do a good and honest job. When the Defendant confirmed that his instruction from the President was “to effect real change and clean up the system”, the Plaintiff accepted the position of Special Adviser to the Defendant, Minister of Aviation.
9. The Defendant, together with the Plaintiff as Special Adviser, resumed duty at the Ministry of Aviation on Monday 6th November 2006. The following day the Plaintiff was issued a business card detailing his position, while on the 8th of November, at a press conference held at the Abuja Sheraton Hotel & Towers, which was televised by the NTA, the Defendant introduced the Plaintiff as his Special Adviser.
10. Despite the Defendant’s confirmation that he had instructions to ‘clean up the system’, the Plaintiff found right from the outset that the Defendant had no compunction about using his position for his own personal benefit as hereinafter stated:
a) On or about the 7th of November 2007, the Defendant instructed the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), one Muhammad Yusufu, to ‘find N40 million’ to buy luxury cars for himself and his friends.
b) The Defendant instructed that the said luxury cars should be purchased from one David B. Okorodudu of Car Link, at 23a Adeyemo Alakija Street, Victoria Island in Lagos.
c) Although the type of vehicles that were being discussed were luxury cars such as Range Rover or Lexus Jeep, the Plaintiff requested that he be supplied with the standard government 406 and driver, a request that caused derisive merriment among the 1st Defendant and others present.
11. Further to the matters pleaded in paragraph 10 herein, the Defendant, who has a history of having been addicted to ‘crack’ cocaine, spent long periods when he was unavailable, being locked up inside his office either alone (after which there would be a noticeable smell of air-freshener as there used to be at his Apapa, Lagos State residence when he had been using ‘crack’ cocaine), or at other times, ensconced and unavailable inside his office with his young female Personal Assistant, Chioma.
12. In addition to the matters pleaded in paragraph 10 herein, the Defendant was erratic, bad-tempered and abrasive, and made a habit of using rude and insulting language to everybody, no matter what their position, whether staff of the Ministry of Aviation, representatives of foreign countries or any other persons who had business with the Ministry.
13. In addition to setting the example pleaded in paragraph 12 herein, the Defendant failed to exercise proper disciplinary control over his staff. On the very first day that the Defendant and the Plaintiff resumed duty at the Ministry of Aviation, one of the Defendant’s security escorts pulled out and fired two rounds of his Browning 9mm ‘High Power’ pistol outside the entrance to the Ministry during an altercation with security officials of the Ministry. The Defendant’s response was to simply shout at the erring security official in public by way of ‘dressing down’, but no disciplinary action whatsoever was taken against him for such unauthorised and dangerous use of firearms.
14. By reason of the matters pleaded in paragraphs 10-13 herein, the Plaintiff realised that as the Defendant did not appear to have any serious intention of running the Ministry under his control in the clean manner that he had claimed he would, it would be difficult, if not impossible for him (the Plaintiff) to continue working with the Defendant and that moreover, his unwillingness to join the Defendant and others in using the public funds of the Ministry for personal gain or advantage would make him a target for the bad temper, abuse and insults that the Defendant was increasingly free at handing out.
15. In the circumstances, by a text message to the Defendant on the 12th of November 2006, the Plaintiff advised the Defendant that he no longer wished to occupy the position of Special Adviser, and the Defendant sent back a text message accepting the Plaintiff’s resignation. In the same text message, the Plaintiff informed the Defendant that President Obasanjo had given approval in principle to a loan from the United Bank for Africa plc. to upgrade the nation’s air traffic control and airport facilities. Although the Plaintiff requested a meeting with the Defendant to agree a statement about his resignation for release, the Defendant declined to hold such a meeting.
16. During the course of the week during which he occupied the position of Special Adviser to the Defendant as Minister of Aviation, the Plaintiff attended several meetings and briefings, and carried out several assignments in his capacity as Special Adviser. In particular, as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was then in Nigeria carrying out a safety audit, the Plaintiff arranged that a meeting should be held between them and the Defendant on Monday 13th November at 2.00 pm at which the ICAO would present its findings on the country’s compliance with safety standards to the Defendant.
17. The Plaintiff had also arranged a meeting with the representatives of Air France who were seeking an increase in the airline’s landing slots in Lagos due to the closure of Port Harcourt airport.
18. Following his resignation, the Plaintiff sent text messages to the Defendant to remind him of the meetings fixed for Monday the 13th of November 2006 with Air France and the ICAO, to none of which did he receive any reply.
19. Accordingly, on the 13th of November, the Plaintiff went to the Ministry to inform the Permanent Secretary of his resignation, and to brief him about the meetings. While clearing his desk, the Plaintiff requested, through the Defendant’s Personal Assistant Chioma, that he be given an official minute reflecting his resignation, but Chioma later advised the Plaintiff that the Defendant had declined to issue such a minute on the ground that the Plaintiff had not been ‘formally appointed’. The Plaintiff thereupon left the Ministry of Aviation.
20. On the 14th of November the Plaintiff was informed by the management of the Command Guest House that the Defendant had called to instruct that he should leave the premises immediately, an order with which the Plaintiff complied and sought temporary shelter with a friend Etubom Bassey Ekpo Bassey.
21. The Plaintiff thereafter telephoned the said Yemisi Wada to ask that at least part of the total of £23,550 which he had advanced for the payment of school fees as aforesaid should be repaid to him, and upon her undertaking to send N100,000.00 to him immediately, the Plaintiff moved to the Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Abuja on Friday the 17th of November 2006. The said Yemisi however, later telephoned to tell the Plaintiff that the money had been transferred to Skye Bank in Abuja and could be collected on Monday the 20th of November.
22. As a result, the Plaintiff had no funds to deposit against his hotel expenses, and despite his having the said Yemisi Wada telephone the management of the hotel to confirm that the said N100,000.00 had indeed been sent and would be available for collection the following Monday, and despite the Plaintiff offering his passports and other security, the hotel refused to accept these. When the Plaintiff, who had been a frequent guest at the said hotel over the past fifteen years, resisted the hotel’s subsequent attempt to eject him, he was arrested and taken to Zone 3 Police Station and the Plaintiff says that this was done at the Defendant’s instigation.
23. Following the intervention of a friend of the Plaintiff, Etubom Bassey Ekpo Bassey, the Plaintiff returned to the Command Guest House where he was unable to book accommodation immediately due to a meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party, but was assured of a room later. Later that night however, the manager of the Guest House appeared with two soldiers who threw the Plaintiff’s bags out onto the street and ejected him from the Guest House. As the Plaintiff protested, the manager of the Guest House informed him that the soldiers had been sent on the Defendant’s instructions, and that there was nothing that he could do.
24. The Plaintiff having been thus ejected onto the road, was attempting to hail a taxi when he was suddenly assaulted by the said soldiers who proceed to tear off his jacket (from which they stole a sum of N10,000 in cash) and whip him with their belts. While this assault was taking place, one Deremi Ajidahun, who is the Defendant’s cousin, arrived with an officer of the State Security Service (SSS). They and the two soldiers then forced the Plaintiff into their vehicle, claiming to have instructions from the Defendant to this effect, and drove him to the Presidential Clinic where they attempted to have him admitted by telling the doctor on duty that the Plaintiff had ‘gone mad’. The said doctor refused to admit the Plaintiff on the ground that there was nothing wrong with the Plaintiff.
25. The said Ajidahun, SSS officer and soldiers then bundled the Plaintiff out of the Presidential clinic and after a telephone call to the Defendant, proceeded to drive around Abuja for over one and a half hours, all the while abusing the Plaintiff and physically assaulting the Plaintiff, beating him and punching him with their fists and kicking him with their feet.
26. The Plaintiff says that the said assaults were carried out with the specific intention of provoking a crisis in him so that it would be possible to have him admitted to a hospital or other facility against his will. During the whole ninety minutes when he was being driven around Abuja, the said Ajidahun was in constant telephone communication with the Defendant, and the Plaintiff says that he understood from the snatches of the conversation that he heard, that the Defendant was making arrangements to ensure that he would be admitted and confined in an hospital that night.
27. After over an hour and a half of being driven around Abuja while being assaulted and abused, the Plaintiff was taken to the National Hospital where his personal property was taken from him and removed by the said Ajidahun, while he was admitted and detained on a diagnosis of bi-polar affective disorder. The Plaintiff was then put on a regime of drugs to treat the alleged condition.
28. The Plaintiff was detained at the National Hospital in Abuja from the 19th of November to the 18th of December 2006 on the instructions of the Defendant, and was repeatedly told by the said Ajidahun that the Defendant had instructed that he should not be released unless he was willing to leave Nigeria.
29. In the circumstances, and in order to regain his freedom, the Plaintiff agreed to leave Nigeria, and on the 18th of December 2006 was flown to the United Kingdom in the company of the Chief Psychiatrist of the National Hospital, Dr. (Mrs.) Olusola T. Ephraim-Oluwanuga FWACP and one Donu Kogbara, a mutual friend of the Plaintiff and the Defendant.
30. Upon arrival in the United Kingdom, the said Dr. Ephraim-Oluwanuga insisted that the Plaintiff be taken straight to the Chelsea and Westminster, Accident and Emergency where he was seen by a doctor and two psychiatrists. Although Dr. Ephraim-Oluwanuga insisted that the Plaintiff should be admitted, the said doctor and psychiatrists refused to do so because in their opinion, the Plaintiff ‘presented as normal’.
31. As a result of the insistence of Dr. Ephraim-Oluwanuga however, a consultation was arranged for the following day with a senior consultant psychiatrist at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, and the Plaintiff stayed at a nearby hotel overnight.
32. At the meeting the following day which had been fixed for 1.00 p.m., Dr. Ephraim-Oluwanuga failed to honour the appointment. In the circumstances, the Plaintiff was examined by the senior consultant psychiatrist who informed the Plaintiff that he did not agree with the diagnosis of bipolar affective disorder, and that he should discontinue the medication that had been prescribed by Dr. Ephraim-Oluwanuga as it was outdated and inappropriate.
33. Dr. Ephraim-Oluwanuga did not arrive until 3.00 p.m., having elected to use her travel allowance to do some ‘Christmas shopping’ prior to returning to Nigeria that evening. The Senior Consultant however, refused to see her at that stage and made an appointment for a follow-up visit on the 16th of March 2007, leaving the Plaintiff free to return home. At the said meeting the Plaintiff was given a total discharge and told to immediately stop taking the drugs prescribed by Dr. Ephraim-Oluwanuga as they had “severe side-effects”.
34. Upon examining his belongings which had been seized from him when he was admitted at the National Hospital in Abuja, but returned to him when he was returning to the United Kingdom, the Plaintiff discovered that in addition to the N10,000 hereinbefore mentioned, the following items of personal property were also missing, namely:
(a) a Siemens/BenQ mobile phone valued at £200.00
(b) a brand new Nokia communicator valued at £600.00
(c) a pair of handmade Church's shoes valued at £250.00
(d) the Plaintiff’s Nigerian passport no. A0220310, with a United Kingdom permanent resident’s visa endorsed in it;
35. Whereupon the Plaintiff claims against the Defendants jointly and severally:-
(a) An Order directing the Defendants to return the Plaintiff’s Nigerian passport, no. A0220310;
(b) N75,000,000.00 being damages for assault committed on or about the 18th and 19th days of November 2006;
(c) N75,000,000.00 being damages for unlawful detention from the 19th of November to the 18th of December 2006;
(d) N272,500.00 being the naira equivalent of the value of the items of personal property and cash seized from the Plaintiff;
(e) Compound interest on the said sums from the 19th of November 2006 at the rate of 21% per annum until judgment or payment.
Dated this day of August 2008
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY
IN THE ABUJA JUDICIAL DIVISION
HOLDEN AT ABUJA
SUIT NO: FCT/ /2008
AYO OBE
OGUNSOLA SHONIBARE,
Plaintiff’s Legal Practitioners,
c/o Adesina Oke & Co.,
Plot 781 Herbert Macaulay Way,
Central Business District,
Abuja, FCT.
Or
Unity House (5th floor),
37 Marina, Lagos,
Lagos State.
For Service On:
The Defendant,
Femi Fani-Kayode,
c/o Seyi Sowemimo Esq., S.A.N.,
11 Sfax Street,
By NICON Staff Quarters,
Opp. Oando Oil,
Wuse, Zone 4,
Abuja, FCT.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });