Court orders senator to pay damages for slapping newspaper
whom he assaulted last year in Uyo.
Mr. Etim, who walks around the city of Uyo, hawking newspapers, had told the
court that Mr. Okon slapped him multiple times inside Government House, Uyo, in September last year.
The assault occurred around the state banquet hall where the vendor had gone with the hope of making quick sales during the swearing-in of a new chairman of Akwa Ibom State Council of Traditional Rulers.
Mr. Etim claimed that three able-bodied men, who may have been Mr. Okon’s
bodyguards, stood by to watch as the former senator kept slapping him.
“When he finished slapping me, he accused me of stealing his wallet. But God knows I am not a thief, I sell
newspapers to take care of myself and my family,” Mr. Etim had told PREMIUM
TIMES in November, shortly after the incident. “He didn’t even search me to see if I had his wallet on me or not.”
The victim, backed by the Newspaper Distributors Association of Nigeria, Akwa Ibom State chapter, filed a
civil suit against the former
senator. “I didn’t really think of
reporting the case to the police; I wanted it sorted out in court,” said the vendor.
The court, presided over by Justice
Winifred Effiong, held that the action of
the former senator was degrading, and
that it was against Mr. Etim’s right to thedignity of his person as guaranteed by Section 34(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as well as the African Charter on human and people’s right.
The court, besides granting an order that Mr. Okon should pay N100,000 as
damages to Mr. Etim, also granted an
order of perpetual injunction, restraining the former senator or his
agents from further breaching of the
applicant’s fundamental human rights.
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