Illegal Arrest, Detention: Maikori Floors El-Rufai Again At Appeal Court

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Friday ruled that the Governor Nasir el-Rufai-led Government of Kaduna State violated the rights of a Nigerian Lawyer and President of the Chocolate City Group, Mr Audu Maikori following his abduction from Lagos and whisking to Kaduna in 2017.

The Appeal Court also awarded a cost of N10.5 million as damages against the Kaduna State Government in favour of Maikori.

Maikori had dragged Governor el-Rufai and the Nigeria Police to Court over unlawful arrest and detention between February 17 and 18, and later between March 10 and 13 in 2017.

The judgement of the Court of Appeal followed an earlier ruling of a Federal High Court that ordered Governor el-Rufai and three others to pay Maikori N40 million as damages for unlawful arrest and illegal detention.

However, the Kaduna State Government rejected the ruling of the High Court and therefore approached the Court of Appeal to upturn the judgment.

Ruling on the matter of breach of fundamental human rights enforcement suit on May 5, 2017, Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court, declared that the rights of Audu Maikori, the President of the Chocolate City’s were violated.

Justice Tsoho said; “The arrest was improper, irregular and wrongful. By necessary implication, the arrest was unlawful despite being released after 24 hours,”

Maikori was arrested on February 17, 2017 and on March 10, 2017, by the police on the orders of the Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai over alleged tweets on his Twitter handle in which he alleged that some students of the Kaduna State College of Education, Gidan Waya in Jama’a Local Government Area of the State were killed by Fulani herdsmen.

Audu Maikori later realized that the information he gathered was not correct and withdrew it and apologized to his Twitter followers but Governor El-Rufai rejected the withdrawal and apology, saying that it had the potency to create crisis in the state.

According to Governor el-Rufai then; “He (Maikori) posted fake pictures of Boko Haram attacks, the Rwandan genocide as Southern Kaduna killings. It is totally irresponsible to do that.”