The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos has upheld a Federal High Court judgment directing the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and several senior officers to pay ₦5 million in damages to Lagos lawyer Kola Sodiya over his unlawful arrest and detention.
A three-member panel led by Justice Yargata Byenchit Nimpar delivered the unanimous judgment on July 10, 2026, dismissing the appeal brought by the IGP, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police for Zone 2, the Zone 2 Officer-in-Charge of Legal, and two other officers. The panel affirmed the Federal High Court’s March 28, 2022 ruling, which found that Sodiya’s constitutional rights had been breached.
The case arose from Sodiya’s arrest over allegations of forgery and document falsification tied to a property dispute at No. 1 Banjoko Street, Harmony Estate, Ifako-Gbagada, Lagos. The police had argued they acted within their legal powers to investigate the criminal complaints before arraigning the lawyer.
But the appellate court found that the police failed to establish reasonable suspicion before making the arrest, which took place around 5:30 a.m. despite an ongoing civil suit over the same property and prior legal advice indicating the matter was purely civil.
Justice Nimpar, in the lead judgment, held that police powers of arrest without warrant cannot be used to meddle in disputes that are essentially civil. She noted that a subsequent police investigation found no evidence supporting the criminal allegations and had in fact recommended the matter be settled in the civil courts.
The court ruled that Sodiya’s arrest and detention violated his constitutional rights to personal liberty and dignity, and that the officers involved had acted outside the lawful scope of their duties, making them personally liable for the abuse of power.
Justices Muslim S. Hassan and Paul Hamed Bassi concurred. In his supporting judgment, Justice Hassan stressed that police cannot use criminal investigations as a tool to interfere in civil disputes already before the courts, adding that constitutional rights must be protected except where the law expressly says otherwise.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal in its entirety, upheld the ₦5 million compensation awarded to Sodiya, and ordered the appellants to pay an additional ₦1 million in costs.
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