The Nigerian Police Force (NPF), may be coughing out a whopping N100 million as compensation to Alabi Quadri, the lad, who went viral ahead of the 2023 general elections when he stood in front of the convoy Peter Obi, then presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), for illegal detention and frame up.
That is if the fresh moves to extract monetary compensation in lieu of damages for the nearly four months he spent at Kirikiri Custodial Centre, after his arrest in January and subsequent arraignment by operatives of the Lagos State Police Command, succeeds.
This was sequel his release by Magistrate Adetola Olorunfemi of the Magistrates’ Court in Apapa, Lagos, on Thursday.
The young lad of17-year-old (minor) was Fred of the charges of armed robbery illegally preferred against him by the police in Lagos.
Inibehe Effiong, lawyer to the young boy, took the matter after Babajide Martins, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), found that he had no case to answer regarding the armed robbery charges and advised that he should be let off the hook.
The DPP recommended the non-prosecution of Quadri and another defendant, one Muiz Animashaun, also standing trial with him alongside three others for the offence of armed robbery, after recommending that a prima facie case had been established against the remaining suspects and they should proceed to stand trial.
Effiong, a fiery rights activist and lawyer who raised alarm over the travails of the young boy on April 9, when he narrated the sad story on the social media, indicated that a legal challenge for the compensation was the next step, even while he and family members Quadiri were still waiting for the conclusion of other formalities and documentation which would enable the magistrate sign the warrant releasing Quadri to his parents.
A palpably disturbed Effiong, while commending the DPP for standing by the truth, berated the police for the role they played, demanding that the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, and the Inspector-General of Police, should as a matter of urgency, deal with the offending officers.
He particularly called for the immediate removal of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Amukoko Divisional Headquarters, and subject him to orderly room trial alongside one Odigbe Samuel the purported Investigative Police Officer (IPO), and other officers who participated in what he called the “evil, sinister, oppressive, and corrupt scheme of framing-up a teenager for armed robbery at the behest of rogue ‘Area Boys.’”
In addition, the activist lawyer, also demanded a public apology be tendered to the boy adding that if the three remedial demands were not fully complied with immediately, he and the team of lawyers would initiate legal actions to seek redress.
Stressing that Quadri’s case was a painful example of the putrefying corruption, monstrous impunity, and pervasive injustice in the Nigeria Police Force, he said: “There are many Quadris languishing in detention centres across Nigeria because of the unbridled criminality, lawlessness, and lack of accountability in the Police institution and the weakness of the justice system. History will vindicate the just.”
