Igbos seek redress in court over Lagos deportation

Seventy-six persons who were allegedly deported to the Southeast have sued the Lagos State Government at the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, demanding N1billion damages.

The applicants sought an order mandating the state to tender a written apology to them, to be published in three national newspapers continuously for 30 days from date of first publication.

They sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents or their agents from further deporting or refusing them free entry to and exit from the state.

Seven of the applicants sued for themselves and “on behalf of those 76 persons deported from Lagos State of Nigeria and dumped/abandoned at Onitsha, Anambra State on the 24th Day of July 2013.”

They are Joseph Aniebonam, Osondu Mbuto, Osondu Agwu, Nnenna Ogbonna, Emily Okoroariri, Friday Ndukwu and Onyeka Ugwa –

They joined the Attorney-General of Lagos State Ade Ipaye and the Commissioner of Police Umar Manko as respondents.

The applicants, through their Onitsha-based lawyer Chief Ugo Ugwunnadi of Okusuanamiri Chambers, sought a declaration that they are Nigerian citizens entitled to the enjoyment of their fundamental rights as provide for in section 34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 41 and 42 of the 1999 Constitution and relevant sections of the African Charter.

According to them, their alleged arrest and detention in various camps, Oshodi rehabilitation centre, police cells and prisons within Lagos for no offence and without trial amounts to a serious breach of their rights.

They sought an order mandating Lagos to reabsorb and accommodate them within the state as they are Nigerian citizens entitled to reside in any part of the country.

One of those ‘deported’, Mr Onyeka Ugwa, who hails from Orlu in Imo State, said in a supporting affidavit said he lived in Lagos for over five years and sold novels under a bridge in Okokomaiko, Lagos.

He claimed he was arrested by policemen and officers of the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) in January last year and taken to a rehabilitation centre in Oshodi, where he was “dumped and abandoned.”

Ugwa said he was subsequently transferred to a detention camp, where he met other Igbos. “We were being treated like domestic animals, being fed only once in a day, with the worst food one can think of, our divergent health status not withstanding.

“At the detention camp some of us were dying like fowls and taken away for burial as if we are not human being. The deaths in the camp gave us the impression that we were detained to die,” he said.

Ugwa said on July 23 last year, armed policemen and other persons drove into the camp, identified those who were Igbos, separated and bundled them into buses, and left in a convoy without being told where they were going.

He said the bus kept moving through the night until they were “offloaded like log of woods” at Upper Iweka in Onitsha, Anambra State at the wee hours of July 24 last year.

“Upon offloading us, the buses with their handlers zoomed off towards Lagos State. At day break we found ourselves stranded without any destination and were just moping at the crowd surrounding us,” he said.

Ugwa said the Red Cross society took care of them in Onitsha, adding that all they worked for and achieved in Lagos were taken from them.

“I personally voted for the present Governor of Lagos State Fashola, not knowing that I was voting for my deportation then,” he said.

He said while some of them admitted to being beggars, a good number of them have a good means of livelihood in Lagos. “I for one am not a destitute and I fend for myself,” he said, adding that Lagos did not reunite them with their families.

But the respondents, in their counter-affidavit said the applicants were neither dumped nor abandoned at Oshodi Rehabilitation Centre or any prison at any location in the state.

Deputy Director in the Office of the Special Assistant to the Governor on Youth and Social Development, Olabode Ajao, said the respondents did not deport the applicants as alleged.

He said it is Lagos’ policy to continuously cater for the welfare of all residents irrespective of state of origin, and that it does its best to ensure that they are gainfully employed and properly accommodated so that they do not constitute themselves into destitutes, vagrants and beggars.

Ajao said the state does not own any rehabilitation centre in Oshodi, nor does not control any prison facility.

The respondents said the applicants were rescued from different parts of Lagos while they were begging for alms, living under bridges and by roadsides, and engaging in other social vices with no discernible means of livelihood or physical address.

The affected individuals, Lagos said, were taken to the state-owned Rehabilitation and Taining Cntre at Majidun, where they underwent a health screening.

“The applicants were fed proper and nutritious meals and were given adequate medical attention by the medical corps at the centre,” the state said.

Lagos said after the applicants completed their skill acquisition programmes, it informed their states of the need to put in place mechanism to identify and reintegrate them with their families.

“It was after a period of three months without any response from Anambra State government, and with the applicants who had successfully completed their different skill acquisition programmes and have indicated their intention to re-join their families at their home states, that the respondents decided to assist in getting them back to their state of origin.

“During my interaction with the applicants, they decided that they would be able to find their way to their respective families from Onitsha, and this necessitated their transportation to ABC Motor Park, Onitsha,” the state said.

Lagos noted that the applicants have filed similar actions in the Awka Division of the Federal High Court, seeking N10millon each; at the Lagos High Court, Ikeja, seeking N10million damages, and two other suits in the Federal High Court in Lagos.

Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia adjourned till February 19 for further mention.