JUSTICE Adeniyi Adebajo of the Lagos High Court, Igbosere on Monday ruled that the office of the Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice was liable for the illegal detention of a trader, Isiaka Mohammed, by the police in January 2012.

The judges’ decision was contained in a judgment he delivered on a fundamental human rights enforcement suit, which was instituted by Mohammed, who is a trader at Iddo market in Lagos.

Justice Adebajo held that the office of the attorney general could not feign ignorance of the illegal arrest and detention, having been served with the processes of the suit instituted by Mohammed to enforce his fundamental human rights.

The judge also held that the police had no business in debt recovery, the purpose for which the applicant was arrested and subsequently detained.

“It is not the duty of the police to arrest or detain persons in such civil transactions. The first defendant (the attorney-general) is liable,” the judge ruled.

Other defendants in the suit apart from the AG are the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Kyari and Suprintendent Babagana (their first names not provided) both of the Lagos State Command, Anti-Robbery Department.

The court said that the silence maintained by the police by not responding to the suit having been served with the processes was “not golden”, insisting that contrary to the argument by the attorney general, the suit was competent.

“The arrest and detention of the applicant without trial is not justifiable in law especially when the police do not have the powers to arrest and detain for the purpose of debt recovery,” Adebajo ruled.

He subsequently asked parties to return to court on July 8 to address him on the prayer of the applicant seeking an award of damages against the AG and other respondents in the suit.

He also asked counsel for the applicant, Mr. Rufai Akanbi, to communicate the particular date in which Mohammed was released from police custody to assist him in arriving at a decision on the award of damages.

Men of the Anti-Robbery Squad of the Lagos State Police Command in Ikeja had on January 27, 2012, arrested and detained Mohammed for the purpose of recovering a debt he allegedly owed one Mallam Bashiru.

The policemen allegedly tortured him in detention, forcing him to pay N100, 000 as part of the debt and yet refused to release him even after a suit was filed seeking his release and damages against the AG and the police.

Akanbi told the court on Monday that his client had since been released from detention but was yet to recover from the ill health he suffered in detention.

Mohammed’s brother, Habeeb Mohammed, who deposed to an affidavit on his behalf, averred that his health had deteriorated while in detention.

The AG had asked the court to exonerate his office as the case file was not forwarded to his office, and no charge was filed against the applicant in any court.