A Kano man, Yahya Usman, who was arrested by the police and sent to prison in 2017 without formal charges is seeking N500 million damages against the Attorney General of the Federation, Inspector General of Police, Kano State police commissioner and the state’s attorney general.
Usman contended that his arrest, detention and arraignment by the police before a magistrates’ court with no formal charges violated his fundamental human rights.
He accused the Attorney General of Kano State of discrimination against him by not formally taking over the prosecution of his case from the police.
Usman cited the cases of Alhassan Ado Doguwa and a Chinese, Frank Quanrong Geng, who were first arraigned before magistrates’ courts for murder but the attorney general took over the cases and filed formal charges against them at the state high court.
Usman’s lawyer, Usman Fari, told the court that his client had been in detention without charges despite enormous powers given to the attorney general to prosecute or set the applicant free.
Fari, therefore, asked the court to grant N500m damages to his client against the respondents.
Counsel to the Attorney General of Kano State, Mujtaba Adam Ameen, argued that the AG had no control over the police who could initiate and prosecute suspected criminals before magistrates’ courts pursuant to the powers conferred on them by Section 23 of the Police Act.
He, therefore, prayed the court to dismiss the application.
The Attorney General of the Federation, the Inspector General of Police and police commissioner were not in court and were not represented.
Justice Muhammad Yunusa fixed May 29, for judgement.