Court orders Lagos to pay N5 million in damages to an Uber driver for the #EndSars Anniversary Attack.

Adedotun Clement, an Uber driver, claims that members of the Lagos State Neighborhood Safety Agency and the Nigeria Police Force attacked, assaulted, and humiliated him during the first anniversary of the #EndSARS protests on October 20, 2021, at the Lekki Toll-Gate. The Federal High Court, sitting in Lagos, has ordered the State Government and the Nigeria Police to pay N5 million as compensation.

The applicant’s treatment constituted a violation of his right to dignity, according to Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa, who also granted him N5 million in damages.

The Lagos State Government and the Nigerian Police Force officials who tortured Clement were also denounced by the court.

On October 20, 2021, Clement was attacked while he was driving a passenger from the state’s island to the mainland when he came across the demonstration at the Lekki Toll Gate that had been suppressed by police and Lagos State officials.

Clement briefly abandoned his car like other drivers and fled for his life as a result of the chaos that followed police officers and officers of the Lagos State Neighborhood Safety Agency firing tear-gas canisters to disperse the peaceful protestors and arresting several protesters.

By the time he went back to get his car, however, the police had attacked, dragged, tormented, and otherwise mistreated him. They had also ignored his pleas that he was an Uber driver and that all he wanted was to get his car back.

The incident, which was caught on camera, was covered by a few media outlets and quickly became popular on social media.

The Lagos State Government employees, along with the police, pepper sprayed Clement as he screamed for help in an effort to forcefully get him inside the Black Maria-named vehicle of the Lagos State Taskforce.

Following widespread condemnation of the viral incident, human rights attorney and activist Mr. Inibehe Effiong of Lagos took up the case and filed a lawsuit against the Nigeria Police, the Lagos State Government, the Lagos State Neighbor Safety Agency, and the Lagos State Attorney General.

Inibehe Effiong, the applicant’s attorney, thanked the court for preserving his client’s rights in his response to the ruling.
The governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babjide Sanwo-Olu, was also urged by Effiong to uphold the ruling, pay the compensation in accordance with his public statement that he had already made payments to EndSARS sufferers, and reassure Lagosians that he supports human rights.