In a judgment that lasted one and a half hours, presiding judge, Justice Opeyemi Oke, vehemently rebuked the officers, describing them as people who are not fit for a decent society.
He described their behaviour as “barbaric” and unlawful and a violation of the plaintiffs’ fundamental human rights.
The judge ordered the officers and the Navy to offer unreserved “apology” to the victims within one month of the judgment in four national newspapers, namely: THISDAY, The Guardian, The Nation and The Punch. She also extended the apology order to some electronic media namely: NTA, AIT, Raypower and Cool FM stations.
“Miss Okere was brutalized, beaten, pushed, pulled and dragged on the road and her blouse pulled off her by one of the naval ratings thereby exposing her nakedness from waist up, leaving her with only the brassiere. This was done to a young lady, a citizen of this country,” lamented the judge.
She said the ratings ought to undergo psychiatric test to determine their sanity, adding that they apparently forgot they were not in a high sea fighting a war but in an enlightened society.
“The averments in their counter-affidavits were cooked-up lies to the extent that they were overcooked and got burnt,” the judge said.
The court resolved the three issues for determination in favour of the applicants, namely: whether they established the fact that their fundamental human rights were infringed; whether the respondents can be held liable, and whether the applicants are entitled to the reliefs sought.
She said after going through the documentary evidence before her, it was a clear case of res inter locutor (facts speak for themselves), adding that no amount of money can adequately compensate the violation of a persons’ human dignity.
Justice Oke added: “Miss Okere was violated by the ratings in glaring eyes of the public with her upper anatomy exposed to all sorts of eyes. Her private property became the object of a cinema for those who witnessed the unfortunate and disgraceful incident in a country like ours. This was man’s inhumanity to man.”
According to her, Okere’s partial nakedness likely made “imaginations to run riot” as “most people who witnessed the incident were able to describe the size of her bra”.
She went on: “These ratings can only be described as barbarians in uniforms as they have shown by this incident that they have no respect for womanhood – dragging a woman on the road and partially getting her naked. They have no fear of God at all.
“It is highly shameful and unimaginable that such could happen in this 21st Century in a civilized society and democratic one. It should therefore be condemned in very strong language.
“The naval ratings have disgraced the uniform they wear as officers of the Nigerian Navy. They are therefore a disgrace to the whole nation. The rebranding gospel should therefore be commenced with this group of officers.”
Arogundade, the judge held, was liable and could not claim ignorance of what his men were doing.
Okere and her friend, Abdulazeez, were beaten and humiliated by the naval ratings in late 2008 for allegedly denying them right of passage on the road.
They went to court to seek for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents and their agents from horse-whipping motorists and putting them in apprehension through reckless driving in siren-blaring convoy. They asked the court to award them N100 million as damages for the assault among other reliefs that they sought.
Arogundade and the Nigerian Navy had attempted to frustrate the matter when they came up with an application seeking stay of proceedings. But Justice Oke dismissed the application on grounds that it was frivolous, unwarranted and a time wasting exercise.
They had also challenged the ruling of the court, which dismissed their application seeking leave of the court to admit oral evidence in a suit which the learned judge dismissed on grounds that there were documentary evidence before the court that could be used to adjudicate on the matter, saying that there was no need for oral evidence.
Dissatisfied, the respondents urged the court to stay further proceedings in the matter pending the final determination of an appeal filed at the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division.
However, the court in its ruling held that granting of an application for stay of proceedings is at the discretion of the court and that the court must take into consideration the rights of parties involved before arriving at a just conclusion.
Source: Thisday
The video of the brutalization of Ms. Uzoma Okere can be viewed below.
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This is so sad. They are cowards.
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