The Court of Appeal in Lagos State has ordered the Nigeria Customs Service to pay the sum of N1m to an account officer, Margaret Ukpe, for unlawfully publishing her name on a wanted persons’ list and posting it on social media.

The NCS in a circular dated September 18, 2018, placed Ukpe, an account officer with the Akwa Ibom State Accountant- General’s office and four other officials of the state government on a watch list in connection with a case of alleged conspiracy, money laundering and misappropriation of public funds, and instructed all its area controllers to arrest them wherever and whenever they are found.

Following the order of the NCS to its officials, Ukpe through her lawyer, Charles Mekwunye, approached the Federal High Court in Lagos to seek reliefs and declarations that the NCS circular widely publicised constituted a gross violation of her fundamental rights guaranteed under the 1999 constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and was therefore illegal and unconstitutional.

Justice Mohammed Hassan, in a judgement delivered on July 28, 2019, granted eight reliefs out of the 10 reliefs sought by Ukpe and restrained the NCS from arresting her but refused to award any damages against NCS or accede to her demand for a public apology.

Ukpe further filed an appeal in 2019 against the judgement of the Federal High Court, insisting that the court was wrong by not granting her monetary damages, having held that her fundamental human right was breached.

In a lead judgment delivered by Justice Abdullahi Bayero on July 14, 2021, the Appeal Court held that the order for Ukpe’s arrest and detention by the NCS in 2018 amounted to a gross infringement on her fundamental human right.

The judge also faulted the decision of the Federal High Court not to grant the appellant monetary damages, insisting that damages in compensation legally and naturally follow every act of violation of a citizen’s fundamental rights.

Delivering his judgement, Justice Bayero ordered NCS to pay Ukpe N1m as compensation for the unlawful and unconstitutional order for her arrest and detention and to also publish an apology to her on the front page of two widely read national newspapers.