Nigeria Content Online

Isaiah Adewale is a
46-year-old ,part-time commercial motorcyclist, part-time bricklayer
who can barely cater for his wife and four children. He suffers from
vitiligo, a disease causing depigmentation of the skin; and as a result
he hardly gets customers to make a living.

But Mr. Adewale is
a millionaire-in-waiting, having being awarded N10 million by Deborah
Oluwayemi,a Lagos State High Court judge, “for the humiliation, pains,
inconvenience,injury, loss and damages” he suffered when Police
officers attached to the Ojodu Police Station unlawfully arrested,
arraigned and got him remanded at Kirikiri prison in 2006.

But four years on,
the Police has remained defiant to obey the court’s ruling of October
3, 2006. In a pathetic story of flagrant disregard to the rule of law
and constituted powers of the Judiciary, Mr. Adewale says there is no
justice for the poor in Nigeria.

“I am a poor man
and nobody listens to the poor. I have written to everybody in
government to help me get this money from the Police because I am dying
from suffering. But nothing! I can no longer get bricklaying jobs,
people don’t want to climb my Okada (commercial motorcycle) because
they are afraid I will transfer my skin problem to them,” says Mr.
Adewale.

Taking up Mr.
Adewale’s struggle,Know Your Rights International, a human rights
advocacy group, has at different periods in time written several
petition letters to the highest authorities of the police, the Ministry
of Police Affairs, the Police Service Commission, the National Human
Rights Commission, the National Judicial Council, the Nigeria Bar
Association, amongst other government establishments.

In a letter dated
January 15,2010, the then Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ogbonna
Onovo, was petitioned.In response, the IG’s Principal Staff Officer
III, Greg Esele, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, wrote to the
Commissioner of Police overseeing the Legal department of the Police
Force to take necessary action. Nothing was done.

One of the few
others to respond to Mr. Adewale’s plight was the secretary of the
National Judicial Council (NJC), Danladi Halilu, who on the orders of
the Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman of the NJC, on March 15, 2010
said “I have been directed to inform you to channel your complaint to
the Inspector of General of Police”.

But the IGP who is
supposed to be the chief enforcer of the law has remained the greatest
offender in refusing to obey court orders, says Olusegun Adeeko, Know
Your Rights lead activist. Mr.Adeeko also petitioned the new IGP, Hafiz
Ringim, reminding him that Mr. Onovo’s removal as IG “was due to his
lip-service attitude to rule of Law and his arrogant defiance of court
orders with impunity”.

In response, Mr.
Ringim in a letter dated September 20, 2010, through Mr. Esele, still
PSO III, directed the commissioner of the Police Legal department to
again “advise accordingly”.

“This is the game
the Police are playing. Since the new IG came on board, we have written
him appeal letters because we believed he will uphold the rule of law
and put the police in the right perspective of Nigerians. But it is
months now and he is paving the line of Mr. Onovo,” says Mr. Adeeko.

At different times,
the Public Complaints Commission also tried to get the Police to obey
the court and pay monetary compensation to Mr. Adewale. On behalf of
the commissioner, one B.A.Ogunyale wrote to the IGP on August 25,2010,
to “kindly request from your good office your appropriate comment in
connection with this petition”.

Phone calls and
email messages sent to several government establishments, including the
police force headquarters, who Mr. Adewale has over the years
petitioned to come to his aid were at the time of going to press
unanswered.

“The Police don’t respond to petitions because they are above the
law. This is dangerous for democracy. I am poor but I will fight for my
rights. I will follow this matter to the end. As Nigerians we need to
wake up from our slumber and speak out because my right is your right
too,” says Mr. Adewale.