Jummy from Nigeria - outcome of the story that inspired this journal

This journal was started in December, 2008 following the extremely distasteful incident in Nigeria. below is the outcome, and although it would have been better that the incident never happened, the outcome appears at the moment to be satisfactory. A thank you to Jummy.

A Lagos State High Court in Igbosere on Thursday, 28th January, 2010, ordered Rear Admiral Harry Arogundade, the Nigerian Navy and four naval ratings to pay Miss Uzoma Okere and her friend, Mr. Abdullahi Abdulazeez, N100 million as damages for assaulting them in November 2008.
The judge ordered the officers and the Navy to offer unreserved “apology” to the victims within one month of the judgment in four national newspapers.

“Miss Okere was brutalized, beaten, pushed, pulled and dragged on the road and her blouse pulled off her by one of the naval ratings thereby exposing her nakedness from waist up, leaving her with only the brassiere. This was done to a young lady, a citizen of this country,” lamented the judge.

The court resolved the three issues for determination in favour of the applicants, namely: whether they established the fact that their fundamental human rights were infringed; whether the respondents can be held liable, and whether the applicants are entitled to the reliefs sought.

Justice Oke added: “Miss Okere was violated by the ratings in glaring eyes of the public with her upper anatomy exposed to all sorts of eyes. Her private property became the object of a cinema for those who witnessed the unfortunate and disgraceful incident in a country like ours. This was man’s inhumanity to man.”

Arogundade, the judge held, was liable and could not claim ignorance of what his men were doing.

Okere and her friend, Abdulazeez, were beaten and humiliated by the naval ratings in late 2008 for allegedly denying them right of passage on the road.

They went to court to seek for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents and their agents from horse-whipping motorists and putting them in apprehension through reckless driving in siren-blaring convoy. They asked the court to award them N100 million as damages for the assault among other reliefs that they sought.

--------Pulled from Thisday online.

IT is indeed a relief that the applicants won their case. This is a victory for democracy in Nigeria.
The defendants can still appeal the judgement and this does not stop Nigerian military men from believing that everyone else is their subject but its a victory for the lady involved in this case.

I can imagine how it would feel to be so publicly embarassed. And after a hard day at work for that matter. We can only hope that this serves as a deterrant for other military men. And that the Nigerian state would indeed be governed by the rule of law and not demonstrations of craze