A High Court sitting in Kaduna has awarded N15m in damages against the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, Muhammad Rabiu, for violating the fundamental rights of members of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the Social Democratic Party to peaceful assembly.

Delivering judgment on Wednesday, Justice Murtala Zubairu, also granted a perpetual injunction restraining the Police Commissioner, his officers, and agents from disrupting or interfering with lawful political meetings and rallies in the state.

The court held that the police acted unlawfully when they disrupted two meetings involving a former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, and chieftains of the ADC and SDP on August 30 and September 4, 2025, respectively.

The first meeting was reportedly broken up by thugs in the presence of police officers, while the second was halted by the police on the strength of an ex parte order obtained from the court.

The police had filed the suit marked KDH/KAD/NPD/1315/2025, seeking to suspend all political meetings in Kaduna State pending investigations into alleged threats of violence.

However, Justice Zubairu dismissed the suit as incompetent and politically motivated, describing it as an abuse of court process.

He declared that the police acted in bad faith and exceeded their statutory powers under the Police Act 2020.

“The notion that the police can indefinitely suspend the fundamental rights of association and assembly of every political party in a state is an overreach and constitutes an abuse of statutory powers,” the judge held. “The duty of the police is to provide security for peaceful assemblies, not to ban them pre-emptively based on vague fears or speculative intelligence.”

The court declared that the ex parte injunction obtained by the police on September 4, 2025, violated Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which guarantees the right to peaceful assembly and association, and ordered it discharged for procedural irregularities and lack of merit.

Citing appellate precedents such as Inspector-General of Police v. All Nigeria Peoples Party (2007) and APC v. Inspector-General of Police (2014), Justice Zubairu reaffirmed that the police have no constitutional or statutory power to prohibit peaceful assemblies.

The judge further ruled that the police’s failure to investigate petitions submitted by the political parties on the August 30, 2025, attack amounted to a breach of statutory duty under Sections 4, 83, and 84 of the Police Act.

He said, “The evidence before this court shows a clear abdication of duty. Rather than protect the victims of the August 30 incident, the police sought judicial cover to curtail their rights. This is unacceptable in a constitutional democracy.”

Consequently, the court ordered the police to pay N15m to the respondents as compensatory, general, aggravated, and exemplary damages for breach of fundamental rights, wrongful injunction, and abuse of statutory duty.

The breakdown of the award includes N5m for the arbitrary suspension of the parties’ meetings, N5m for obtaining a wrongful injunction, and N5m for failure to investigate the reported attack.

Justice Zubairu also directed the Commissioner of Police to investigate the August 30 violence and submit a report to the Attorney-General of Kaduna State within 60 days of the judgment.

He warned that selective enforcement or suppression of opposition activity by law enforcement agencies erodes public trust and undermines democracy.

“The actions of the applicant demonstrate a clear pattern of abuse of power. Law enforcement agencies must never be used as tools of political intimidation. The Constitution protects not only the right to vote but also the right to assemble, organize, and associate freely. These are the lifeblood of democracy,” Justice Zubairu held. (The PUNCH)