A Federal High Court sitting in Kaduna had ordered the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to immediately release a 47-year-old Islamic cleric, Malam Hussaini Umar Na-Dasiu Mayo-Belwa detained with-out charge since April 26 this year.
Ruling on the application by the detainee against the Director-General of the State Security Services (SSS), the IGP and the Attorney-General of the Federation yesterday. Justice Abdullahi M. Liman ordered the respondents to pay the cleric, who is the chief imam of Mararaban Rido Juma'at mosque in Chikun local government, N5 million as compensation.
He also ordered the enforcement of the applicant's fundamental rights and a public apology for the violation of his rights.
Justice Liman described the attitude of the police which had ignored an earlier order and refused to make any representation in court as "lawless" and an abandonment of responsibility" which "smacks of incompetence" and "callous and barefaced malice".
He said "any act of lawlessness on the part of the police does incalculable damage to the psyche of the citizens "and does not portray a good image of the country in the international community.
"Having found the second respondent (the IGP) liable to all the allegations levelled against him, I am of the view that the applicant is entitled to all the reliefs sought; accordingly, I grant the applications as prayed against the second and the respondents jointly and severally.
"On question of compen-sation, I consider the attitude of the second respondent which smacks of callousness and barefaced malice and accordingly the applicant is entitled to punitive and aggravated damages which I access at N5 million", Justice Liman ruled.
"The respondent shall forthwith release the applicant otherwise the respondent shall be liable to pay the applicant the sum of N100,000 every week is default of such release." The applicant, however, could not prove that the first respondent (SSS) ordered the cleric's arrest or took part in it.
Malam Hussaini Umar Na'Dasiu Mayo-Belwa was alleged to have been arrested on Saturday, April 25 this year near Kawo motor park in Kaduna metropolis by three armed mobile policemen and some plainclothes security men in two Peugeot cars while returning from Gusau in Zamfara State and taken to an undisclosed destination and has been held incommunicado without charge since then.
Two illegal searches were also alleged to have been conducted in his family house at Mararaban Rido and the school of which he is proprietor without any warrant while the Islamic scholar was in detention.
The searches were conducted by armed mobile police-men and although no incriminating materials were alleged to have been found, the security men were said to have carted away his files, books and diaries.
Malama Khadijah Hussaini the senior wife of the applicant had deposed in a supporting affidavit that her husband who is chairman of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria (SCSN) and Jama'atu Izalatul Bidia Wa Ikamatus Sunna (Izala) in Chikun local government was detained for his religious beliefs and his capacity to influence and mobilise people within his community.
She averred that, "I know the arrest and detention of the applicant is an attempt by the state and federal governments to intimidate and harass Islamic clerics so as to check the spread of the religion of Islam in Nigeria under the guise of "fundamentalism and "extremism."