Court Orders MRA To Sue FG Over Failed Anti-torture Act

BY CHIKA OKEKE, Abuja

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has ordered the Media Rights Agenda (MRA) to sue the federal government over failure to make rules and regulations for the effective implementation of the Anti-torture Act.

The order of mandamus was expected to compel the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN) to exercise its mandatory legal duty as stipulated in Section 11 of the Anti-Torture Act, 2017.

Justice Tijjani Garba Ringim granted the order following a motion by MRA's lawyer, Mrs. Bankeye Akinwale, claiming that the AGF had failed to make the needed rules and regulations since 2017 despite the existence of the act.

The MRA had lamented that Nigerians are subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment by law enforcement agencies and other government officials and non-state actors according to various reports by journalists.

The MRA said that it wrote to the AGF on August 20, 2021, requesting that he should perform the statutory duty imposed on him by the Act, which the minister failed to implement till date.

To this end, the organisation stated that it was compelled to approach the court to ask for permission to apply for an order of mandamus to mandate the AGF to perform the mandatory legal duty imposed on him by Section 11 of the Act.

Ruling on the motion, Justice Ringim said that after careful consideration of the application, upon reading through the verifying affidavit deposed to by MRA’s Programme Officer, Mr. John Gbadamosi, the attached exhibits and after hearing the submissions of MRA’s lawyer that he granted MRA permission to apply for the order.

He informed the organisation to direct the Attorney-General to pay them the sum of N5 million as exemplary and aggravated damages for the flagrant violation of the Section 11 of the Anti-torture Act, 2017 and among others.

Justice Ringim, however, ruled that the grant of the order is conditional on MRA filing a written undertaking for costs within two days of the ruling in the event that it turns out that the order ought not to have been granted in the first place.

These were contained in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja yesterday by the Communications Officer of MRA, Mr. Idowu Adewale.

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