ROBBERY SUSPECT LOSES N1M SUIT TO POLICE

ROBBERY SUSPECT LOSES N1M SUIT TO POLICE

A Lagos state High Court in Ikeja has dismissed the suit filed against the police by Ebi Tosan, one of the four suspects from the March 12, 2015 robbery at the First City Monument Bank, Lekki branch,
The Punch reports.

Tosan, 20-year-old, who was caught on April 5, had dragged the police to court, seeking bail and claiming compensation for damages in the sum of N1m.Chief S.W. Baidi, his lawyer, argued that the suspect’s continued detention without bail was an infringement and curtailment of his constitutional rights to personal liberty, freedom of movement and presumption of innocence.

He had sought a declaration that the arrest, torture and continued detention of the suspect without bail, was a violation of his fundamental human rights to personal liberty and freedom of movement pursuant to sections 34(1)(a), 35(1)(4) and Section 41 of the 1999 Constitution.

Justice Obafemi Adamson, in a judgment on Friday, September 4, dismissed Tosan’s suit“for lacking in merit.”

 The judge said the suspect did not place enough evidence before the court to justify the compensation he was seeking.

Adamson noted that though Tosan claimed that his public parade by the police had prejudiced his right to presumption of innocence, the suspect did not file any material evidence, like newspapers’ report, to back his claim.

It was gathered that Tosan and the other three suspects had been taken before a Lagos magistrate’s court, which ordered them to be remanded in Ikoyi prison.

The gang, who stormed First City Monument Bank on Admiralty Way, Lekki, Lagos state in military uniforms on March 12, 2015, reportedly killed about five people, including three policemen and a fish hawker, before carting away with about N15mThe robbers were said to have engaged the police in a gun battle for about 30 minutes before finally escaping through the lagoon in a speed boat.