A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos will hear the case filed by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ),Lagos State Chapter against the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service(NCS) and eight others on Wednesday, February 3,2016 for alleged assault.
An online statement by the NUJ, Lagos Chapter disclosed that the suit will come before Justice Anka of Federal High Court Ikoyi, Lagos at 9am.
The NUJ, Lagos chapter had filed the case on behalf of a Badagry-based journalist, Otunba Yomi Olomofe against the Comptroller- General of NCS and eight others for the enforcement of Olomofe’s fundamental rights to life, dignity of the human person and freedom of expression and the press
The case, the body said comes up for mention on Wednesday, February 3, 2016 at 9am.
Recalled that Olomofe was on June 22, 2015, brutally beaten by hoodlums allegedly working for the NCS at Seme border and left him in the pool of his blood at a refuse dump.
The development made the Lagos State Chapter of NUJ to file a N500 million criminal suit against NCS, over the brutal assault of Olomofe, at Seme border post of the NCS last year.
In a fundamental rights suit filed by Mr. Jiti Ogunye on behalf of the NUJ and Olomofe, the NUJ is asking for N500 million as special and exemplary damages for the violation of the applicant’s rights.
The applicant, in the suit, asked the court for a declaration that the beating meted out to Olomofe by the defendants, who inflicted bodily and internal injuries on him on June 25, 2015, in the premises of the NCS, Seme, was “capable of infringing on his right to life as guaranteed by Section 33 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.”
The applicant prayed the court to declare that the beating of Olomofe, on the said date, in the course of discharging his professional duties and obligations, constituted an infringement on his rights to freedom of expression and the press as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution.
