The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria to pay a German, Martin Gegenheimer, the sums of ₦63.7m and $10,000 for illegal arrest and detention by the Nigerian Immigration Service in 2020 during the COVID-19 period.
The court ordered the Apex Bank to pay the award in his favour to the ECOWAS Court in a suit marked ECW/CCJ/APP/23/2020.
The ECOWAS Court on March 4, 2021, entered judgment in Gegenheimer’s favour, declaring his arrest and detention illegal.
The regional court ordered the Nigerian government to pay him ₦53,650,925 as special damages for various losses suffered and costs incurred while under unlawful arrest and detention by the NIS.
The court also ordered the Nigerian government to pay him another N10m in general damages as reparation for all violations and moral prejudice suffered, and an additional $10,000 for the expenditure incurred by the applicant to secure his bail.
Gegenheimer told the ECOWAS Court that the Nigerian Immigration seized his passport, and detained him in an overcrowded facility between February 23, 2020, and March 4, 2020.
According to him; he was denied decent food and medical care, and he was not informed of any justifiable reason recognised by law for his arrest and detention, neither was a warrant of arrest nor a court order produced as the basis for his humiliating experience.
The German alleged that he was not afforded the opportunity of a fair hearing before any lawful authority or competent court until March 4, 2020, when an administrative bail was secured for him in the face of the pending COVID-19 lockdown in Abuja.
Ruling on the matter on Thursday, Justice Inyang Ekwo ordered the CBN to deduct the amount from the Federal Government’s funds in its custody to settle the debt that arose from the ECOWAS Court of Justice.
