2014 Court Ruling Puts A Lie On El-Rufai’s Detention Allegation Against Peter Obi
Emerging fact as indicated by a 2014 Federal High Court judgement has further put a lie on the spurious allegation by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State that Mr. Peter Obi, as Governor detained him for 48hours in his hotel room in Awka.
Clearly, a judgment of the Federal High Court, Awka Division, Anambra State delivered on September 29, 2014 revealed that former Anambra State Governor and presently the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi had no hand whatsoever in the detention of Nasir El-Rufai, who was a chieftain of the APC in 2013.
The jugdement of the Court also buttressed the Fact check conducted by PRNigeria, which recently proved that the claim by Elrufai that Peter Obi as Governor of Anambra State in 2013 ordered his detention. PRNigeria’s checks indicated that El-Rufai’s allegation was completely and erroneously MISLEADING and FALSE.
https://prnigeria.com/2022/10/21/fact-check-did-peter-obi/
Contrary to the claim of the Kaduna State Governor, the Court’s judgment obtained by PRNigeria in a suit filed by the same El-Rufai on December 19, 2013, challenging the breach of his fundamental rights as occasioned by his restriction to hotel premises, made no reference either directly or indirectly to Peter Obi in the 48 hours detention at Finotel hotel premises.
El-Rufai, throughout his claims in the court papers, stated that operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) were solely responsible for the unlawful restrictions he suffered from November 15 to 16 while in Awka to observe a Gubernatorial election of 2013 on behalf of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In the judgment delivered by Justice Bature Isah Gafai, showed that El-Rufai clearly directed his allegations against the SSS alone and did not in any way join either Peter Obi or the Anambra State Government as defendants in the suit marked FHC/AWK/CS/310/13.
In clear terms, the only two defendants in the suit were the SSS and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) as 1st and 2nd defendants respectfully, while AGF was made a defendant on account of being the Chief Law Officer of the Federation as well as for vicarious liabilities reasons.
Justice Bature Isah Gafai in his 29-page judgement, never made even a veil reference or issued an order whatsoever, against either Governor Peter Obi and or the Anambra State Government since El-Rufai in all his depositions in the suit pointed no wrongdoings against Peter Obi in the detention saga.
Accordingly, Justice Gafai, who is now a Justice at the Court of Appeal, found SSS liable for the unlawful detention El-Rufai and therefore the secret police N2 Million as damages to El-Rufai for the breach of his fundamental rights to personal liberty, freedom of movement, speech, and association.
The Judge also ordered the SSS to tender an apology to El-Rufai in two national dailies, to wit; the Sun and Daily Trust newspapers, having been found liable for the act complained of by El-Rufai.
It is instructive that for the period of almost one year hearing the case lasted and throughout the depositions of El-Rufai on oath, no mention or reference was made to Peter Obi or Anambra State Government as culprits in the unlawful restrictions at the Finotel hotel premises.
The SSS and AGF in their joint counter affidavit to El-Rufai’s claims of unlawful arrest and detention had asserted in their defense that El-Rufai, who was classified as a “VIP” was accorded protective restrictions when he refused the request of its operatives to give him protective company.
Though Justice Gafai rejected the SSS assertions, the security agency claimed to have an “intelligence report” that El-Rufai would be harmed and that it would be blamed for the failure to act to give him protection, hence, the deployment of its operatives to the hotel.
The SSS specifically claimed that it had no choice but to confine El-Rufai to the hotel premises because of his blunt refusal to allow its operatives to accompany him during the election monitoring.
Going by the Court judgement, it has been further proven that El-Rufai’s allegations of unlawful detention against Mr Peter Obi, coming almost nine years after a court held that the detention was carried out by the SSS based on El-Rufai’s own evidence, is not only false but misleading.
