Anietie Okon, a former senator from Akwa Ibom State, who reportedly assaulted a newspaper vendor identified as Ndifreke Etim, last year in Uyo, has been ordered by a High Court in the state capital to pay N100,000 as damages.
Premium Times reported that the victim who walks around the city of Uyo, hawking newspapers, had told the court that 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.
Etim claimed that 3 able-bodied men, who may have been Okon’s bodyguards, stood by to watch as the former senator kept slapping him.
Speaking to a correpondent, Etim said in November, shortly after the incident that;
“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. 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 Etim’s right to the dignity 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 Okon should pay N100,000 as damages to 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.
It also ordered the former senator to pay additional N50,000 as cost of the litigation to Etim.
“I am glad that the court has been bold enough to tell the senator that what he did against me was wrong. It’s not about the money,” Etim said.
