#ENDSARS: Court orders Lagos govt, police to pay assaulted Uber driver N5m

Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa of the Federal High Court, Lagos, on Tuesday, ordered the state government and the Nigeria Police to pay an Uber driver, Adedotun Clement, the sum of N5 million as compensation following an assault in 2021.

Clement was brutalized by officials of the Lagos State Neighborhood Safety Agency and the Nigeria Police Force during the first anniversary of #ENDSARS protest at the Lekki Toll-Gate on October 20, 2021.

The Uber driver was carrying a passenger from Lagos Island to the Mainland when he intercepted by the officials.

At the hearing on Tuesday, the court heard how pandemonium ensued after policemen and officers of the Neighborhood Agency fired tear-gas canisters to disperse the peaceful protesters during the rally.

READ ALSO: Mr Macaroni says Nigerian govt deceitful for failing to act on #EndSARS panel recommendations

The Uber driver, who temporarily abandoned his car like other motorists and ran for his life, was accosted, dragged, tortured and manhandled by the officers when he returned to pick the vehicle.

A human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, took up the case and sued the state government over the victim’s maltreatment by security agents.

In his ruling, Justice Allagoa held that the treatment meted on the applicant amounted to a violation of his right to dignity and awarded him the sum of N5 million as damages.

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