Nigeria Content Online

A
legal battle between four-year-old David Olawale and the Nigeria Police
is scheduled for hearing tomorrow at the Federal High Court, Ibadan.

David is
challenging the alleged abuse of his fundamental human right by one
Sunmonu Ojediran, an Inspector attached to the Ogun State Crime
Investigation Division (CID), who allegedly shot and killed his father,
Olawale Babalola, on June 1, 2010. Apart from the police inspector,
Master Olawale also joined the Inspector General of Police and the
Commissioners of Police in charge of Oyo and Ogun State Commands in the
suit.

How he died

According to the
affidavit sworn to by the widow of the deceased, Opeyemi Olawale, who
filed the suit on behalf of his son, the alleged killing happened when
her husband was out to buy some drugs for her few hours after she had a
stillbirth on May 31. “That he (the husband) volunteered to purchase
the drugs outside the hospital and that was the last day I heard or saw
him alive,” she said. Mrs Olawale also stated that all efforts to
locate the deceased was futile, until when one of his friends informed
her that he had been killed by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad
(SARS) in Ogun state.

According to her,
the man told her that the deceased was shot during an argument that
ensued between him and police officers who brought an armed robbery
suspect from their office to Ibadan to effect his arrest, over an
allegation of receiving stolen vehicles. “On arrival at the agreed area
at the Nigerian Breweries Area of Ibadan, my husband was arrested and
upon [the] argument that ensued, my husband was shot by the 3rd
respondent (Mr Ojediran) and died as a result of the gunshot,” she
said. The widow, who said she had been receiving strange messages since
the killing of her husband, had been arrested twice over the matter.

Seeking justice

She said her
insistence on seeking justice was responsible for the arrests, adding
that during the latest arrest, which happened last month, she fainted
at the Eleweran headquarters of the Ogun state Police command where she
spent days answering queries from police detectives. In a suit number
FHC/IB/C8/65/2010, which comes up for hearing today, the younger
Olawale, who is the only surviving child of the deceased, is praying
for the court to declare the shooting and killing of his father without
justification as a gross violation of Sections 33(1) and 34 of the
constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria 1999.

The plaintiff also wanted an order of the court declaring the
breaking into her house in the name of searching as a breach to private
and family life and contravenes section 37 of the Nigerian
constitution. The widow is also praying the court to restrain the
defendants from further harassing, victimising, disturbing, arresting,
detaining or subjecting her to any form of indignity, inhuman or
degrading treatment even as he asked for the release of the corpse of
her husband for befitting burial. Besides all this, the plaintiff is
asking for a compensation of a sum of N100 million for the alleged
wrongful killing.