In a significant legal development, businessman and former New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) governorship candidate, Musa Mubarak Saliu, has filed a suit against the Inspector General of Police and two others, demanding N500 million in damages for alleged violation of his fundamental rights.
Saliu, represented by his lawyer Femi Motojesi, claims that the police falsely declared him a wanted person in a land dispute case involving Funmilola Florence Olorunfemi.
The suit, filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, accuses the police of freezing Saliu's bank account with Globus Bank, which belongs to Emperor City Integrated Limited, where Saliu is the alter ego and signatory.
Saliu argues that the police publication of his picture and name in the Special Police Gazette bulletin as a wanted person was a violation of his rights to privacy, dignity, personal liberty, and freedom of movement.
Saliu also seeks a declaration from the court that the police lack the power to engage in debt recovery for Olorunfemi, a subscriber to his estate under construction, who had paid N25 million for a house before the FCT Department of Development Control demolished the estate.
The businessman is asking the court to order the police to unfreeze his account, issue an apology in the Special Police Gazette bulletin and two national dailies, and pay N500 million in damages for the violation of his rights.
