An Abia-based journalist, Norah Okafor, has dragged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission before the Abia State High Court over an alleged invasion of her apartment on Ehimiri Housing Estate, in the Umuahia area of the state.
Okafor, in a Facebook post, had narrated how some masked operatives of the agency on September 23, 2021, allegedly invaded her apartment.
Okafor, who noted that the officers operated like burglars, explained that they jumped over the fence around 2am to gain access into the compound and broke the gate with an axe.
The journalist said the operatives assaulted her brothers and destroyed the property in the apartment.
Okafor subsequently sued the agency for violation of her fundamental human rights and demanded the sum of N20m for exemplary and general damages.
In the suit, she sought a declaration of the court that the invasion by the masked operatives while she was naked and asleep was unlawful, unconstitutional and an infringement on her rights to the dignity of the human person.
The journalist also demanded a written public apology for the anti-graft agency’s unlawful breach of her fundamental rights.
The grounds for the reliefs sought by the journalist read in part, “The torture, detention of the applicant by the respondents perpetrated on the 23rd day of September 2021, around 1.36am without any notice or invitation of the applicant by the respondent for any investigation violates the applicant’s right to dignity of the human person, personal liberty and freedom of movement as guaranteed by sections 34, 35, 37, and 41 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria and Article 5,6 and 12 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.”