A Federal Capital Territory High Court, sitting in Gudu Judicial Division Abuja, has awarded N50 million damages against the police for arresting and detaining an activist of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Ngozi Umeadi.

Nnamdi Kanu’s lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, who hailed the judgement on Thursday, said the court also ordered her unconditional release and public apology.

He noted that the judgement was delivered by Justice Modupe Osho-Adebiyi of Court No. 28, Gudu Judicial Division, Abuja.

The lawyer had filed a fundamental rights suit we filed to challenge the illegal arrest, torture and continued detention of Mrs Ngozi Umeadi since February 2021.

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Osho-Adebiyi declared Ngozi Umeadi’s arrest and continued detention by the Operatives of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Unit, hitherto led by the suspended head, Abba Kyari, as “illegal, and a gross violation of her fundamental Human Rights”.

The Court further directed for her “immediate and unconditional release from custody, and consequently awarded exemplary and aggravated damages of N50 million damages against the police as reparation.

The Court further directed the police to “tender an unreserved apology to Mrs Ngozi Umeadi, which apology will be published in two national dailies”.

Ngozi Umeadi, a nursing mother, was said to be arrested at a hospital in Onitsha since February 2021.