Unlawful Detention: Tenant Drags Landlord, Police To Court

A Port Harcourt based- businessman, Mr Justice Nwidag, has filed a suit at the Port Harcourt High Court claiming the sum of N20,000,000 (Twenty million naira) as damages over what he described as unlawful arrest and detention by his landlord, Mr. Chisom Wonodi and the police.
In suit No: PHC/1372/2017, the applicant sought for the enforcement of his fundamental human rights against the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, the Divisional Police Officer, Kala Police Station and his landlord, Mr Chisom Wonodi.
Mr Nwidag, who spoke with The Tide in Port Harcourt last Monday  alleged that the respondents in the suit arrested him over tenancy matters and tortured him at Kala Police Station.
He said he was detained by the respondents, a situation which made him to miss his Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) examination, which he had registered.
Mr Nwidag explained that he was detained beyond the constitutionally provided period of 24 hours.
He noted that he was detained for three days in the cell of the respondents at Kala Police Station, Port Harcourt at the behest of Chisom Wonodi, the 4th respondent in the suit.
The businessman also told The Tide that Wonodi had alleged that he forged rent receipts in a desperate bid to criminalise an otherwise civil matter of tenancy.
He said the action of the respondents had breached his fundamental rights as entrenched in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended.
Mr Nwidag also alleged that the 4th respondent in the suit had also broken his lock and thrown his things out in the rain.
Reacting to the incident, Mr Chisom Wonodi, denied that Justice Nwidag was his tenant.
Wonodi, who spoke with The Tide on  phone chat in Port Harcourt last Monday remarked that Nwidag  was  making false claims.