Court declares use of police for loan recovery illegal, awards compensation to victim

The Federal High Court in Abuja has declared illegal the use of police for loan recovery.

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Judge Mohammed Umar made the declaration in a judgement in a case of the arrest and detention of Helen Shalamba by police officers.

Ms Shalamba was arrested at the instance of her former lover Ogashuwa Okuba over a loan dispute following their break-up.

The judge ruled that it is illegal to involve the police in a non-criminal dispute and awarded N2 million damages to Ms Shalamba for a series of violations of her rights.

The judge, who cited a line of related judicial precedents to back his stance, held that “in the instant case, the using of the instrumentality” of the police by Mr Okuba, the 6th respondent, “on a matter that is purely civil, without any criminal culpability, endangers the applicant’s right to, as enshrined under Section 34, 36 of the Criminal Code.”

“The affidavit in support illustrated that the dispute that sprang up between the applicant and the 6th respondent was purely civil, without any element of criminality,” the judge ruled.

He added that the police acted outside their statutory powers and that Mr Okuba, the complainant, had no legal right to engage them to enforce a civil debt.

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The applicant, Ms Shalamba, filed the suit after the police officers, acting with Access Bank Plc and Stanbic IBTC Bank, and following Mr Okuba’s complaint, arrested and detained her over a loan dispute between the former lovers.

The suit named the Nigeria Police Force, the Inspector General of Police, the Deputy Inspector General of Police at Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) Area 10, Abuja (1st to 3rd respondents), the two banks (4th and 5th respondents) and Mr Okuba as 6th respondents.

She filed the fundamental rights enforcement suit on 12 May through her lawyer, Ibrahim Alhassan of P.H. Ogbol & Co, under sections 35, 41, 43, and 46 of the Nigerian constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.

From bank to detention

According to Ms Shalamba, she visited Access Bank on 15 May to complain about restrictions on her accounts when police officers arrested and detained her. She said she was only granted bail the following day, 16 May.

During her spell in detention, she was shown a petition by Mr Okuba, alleging that she had defrauded him of $2,000.

She said police officers spurned the advice of a deputy commissioner of police identified as Rita, of the Post-Criminal Investigative Department (PCID) Gender Unit, that the parties be allowed to settle the dispute amicably. Against the counsel, she said, she was asked to write an undertaking to repay the money. The police refused to lift the account restrictions while Mr Okuba also refused to withdraw his petition, the applicant said.

Her lawyer would later write to both banks demanding the lifting of the post-no-debit restriction, but the banks said the restriction was based on a valid court order obtained by the police.

In her suit seeking redress, he submitted 17 prayers, including declarations that her arrest, detention, and account restrictions were unlawful, and damages for the violation of her rights.

Access Bank and Stanbic IBTC Bank filed counter-affidavits along with other processes to oppose the suit, stating that the restrictions were based on a magistrate’s court order in Karu, Abuja, dated 19 March. They said the order was signed by Magistrate Ahmed Ndajiwo. They attached copies of the police letter and court order as Exhibits A and B and argued that, since the order had not been vacated, they could not be held liable.

The police and Mr Okuba did not respond to the suit, nor file any process in response to the case.

String of violations

Mr Umar delivered his judgement on 6 November, details of which PREMIUM TIMES gathered on Friday.

Declaring the actions of the police and the complainants who engaged them as illegal, the judge held that, “this court is of the view that the steps taken by the sixth respondent by the instrumentality of the police, which led to the placing of the applicant’s account under restriction, are not in accordance with the principle of the law.”

The judge further noted that the applicant had proven her case and ordered Access Bank and Stanbic IBTC Bank to lift restrictions on her accounts. He awarded her N2 million in damages against the respondents for the violation of her fundamental rights.

He also ruled that the arrest, detention, and incarceration of Ms Shalamba on 15 and 16 May over a civil matter involving a loan and a failed relationship, was unlawful.”

The judge agreed with the banks that “any person or institution served with a valid court order is obliged to obey it until it is discharged or set aside”, noting that they acted lawfully in complying with the order. But he said the use of police by the sixth respondent to compel repayment was improper and violated Ms Shalamba’s rights.

The court also ruled that the statutory functions of the police do not include recovery of debts from civil transactions and that the sixth respondent acted unlawfully in using the police to arrest, threaten, or harass her.

Mr Umar declared the Magistrate Court order “null and void.” And ordered the banks to lift the post-no-debit restrictions on her accounts.

The court also awarded N2 million in general damages in favour of the applicant. It is to be paid “jointly and severally by the first, second, third, and sixth respondents, for unlawful arrest, detention, and violation of Ms Shalamba’s rights.

A broken relationship

In an affidavit sworn by Ms Shalamba in support of the suit, she recalled that she met Mr Okuba in 2019 when he expressed interest in her. They began courting in 2020, but the relationship ended in 2023.

She stated that she rejected Mr Okuba’s marriage proposal after discovering he was already married and had taken his wife abroad. “When I confronted him, he promised to leave his wife for me, but I refused and ended the relationship,” she wrote in her supporting affidavit.

Before the relationship, she ran a boutique business. In 2022, while relocating her shop, Mr Okuba lent her $2,000, then to complete her rent.

As of 2022, the amount was equivalent to N1.32 million at the exchange rate that year. The applicant, in her affidavit, admitted borrowing the money but denied any fraud.

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After she ended the relationship, she said Mr Okuba began threatening her life.

“He told me he would make me worthless, that even a vulture would be more valuable than me,” she stated in her affidavit.

She added that he also threatened to make her walk naked on the streets of Abuja unless she agreed to marry him. She reported the threats to the police in 2023.

The court declared that Ms Shalamba is entitled to the enforcement of her fundamental rights to personal liberty, fair hearing, freedom of movement, and ownership of property. Her arrest and detention without a valid court order violated her rights, the court ruled.