Charles Okah sues Nigerian Prisons Service and staff

Charles Okah, who is being detained in connection with the October 1, 2010 bomb blast in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory has dragged the Nigerian Prisons Service and one of its Deputy Comptrollers of Prisons, Mohammed Ibrahim, to court for denying him his basic rights.

In the originating motion made available to The Eagle Online, Okah said his fundamental human rights were being infringed upon in Kuje Prisons, Abuja where he is being held.

Okah is seeking among others a declaration of the court that the fumigation of his cell where he is being held with poisonous chemicals while he was inside “by the respondents, their office, agents, privies and howsoever called, amounts to a violation” of his Fundamental Right to dignity of human person and right to life as enshrined in Section 34 and Section 33of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

Other declarations being sought by Okah, according to the motion, are: “that the refusal to allow the Applicant’s wife, Children and relatives from visiting the Applicant like every other prison inmate, by the Respondents, their officers, agents, privies or howsoever called, amounts to a violation of the Applicant’s right to private and Family life, as enshrined in section 37 of the 1999 Constitution;

“that the continuous refusal to allow the Applicant participation in the daily physical exercises in the prison like other prison inmates by the Respondents, their office, agents, privies or howsoever called, amounts to a violation of the Applicant’s right to human dignity, as enshrined in section 34 of the 1999 Constitution; and

“that the continuous refusal in allowing the Applicant to Worship in the Worship Centre like other inmates by the Respondents, their office, agents, privies or howsoever called, amounts to a violation of the Applicant’s right to freedom of thought, Conscience and Religion, as enshrined in Section 38 of the 1999 Constitution.

Okah thus requested the court to grant him an order of mandatory injunction compelling the Respondent to allow the Wife, Children and other relatives of the Applicant to visit the Applicant under the supervision of the prison Warders; compelling the Respondent to allow the Applicant practice his religion at the Worship Centre like every other inmates; compelling the Respondents jointly and severally to pay to the Applicant the sum of =N=10,000,000,000.00 (Ten Billion Naira) only as damages for the inhuman, degrading treatment, and psychological trauma/torture occasioned by the unlawful acts of the Respondents; and such further orders as the court may deem fit to make in the circumstance.

The motion was filed on January 20, 2012, with a seven-paragraph affidavit by one Seyi Bakare.