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A civil servant and former aide to the Niger State Deputy Governor, Lawal Mu’azu-Obah, has sued the Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu, and four others for N500 million over an alleged night raid on his residence, assault, abduction, torture and illegal detention.
Mu’azu-Obah, who lives in the Maitumbi area of Minna, Niger State, filed the suit at the Federal High Court in Minna, seeking compensation for what he described as violations of his fundamental rights.
The suit, filed under the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure, is marked Suit No. FHC/MN/87/2026 and Motion No. FHC/MN/S1/205/2026.
The respondents are the Inspector-General of Police; the Commissioner of Police, Niger State Command; the Police Service Commission; Aliyu Kuta, identified in the suit as the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Maitumbi; and Ibrahim Mohammed.
The case followed an incident earlier reported by SaharaReporters, in which police personnel allegedly raided Mu’azu-Obah’s residence at about 1:00am on Monday, August 24, 2026.
The officers allegedly beat and arrested him in the presence of his wife and young son.
Sources familiar with the incident told Sahara Reporters that the officers initially admitted that they did not know why Mu’azu-Obah was being arrested.
According to the sources, Mu’azu-Obah was asleep at home with his family when they were suddenly awakened by loud banging on the door.
The family reportedly became frightened and thought armed robbers or hired killers had invaded their home.
Before Mu’azu-Obah could properly dress, the men allegedly broke down the door, entered the parlour and proceeded to his bedroom.
“He was still naked when they entered the room,” a source familiar with the incident told SaharaReporters.
The source alleged that one of the men took Mu’azu-Obah’s phone and his wife’s phone before beating him.
“One of them took his phone, his wife's phone and started beating him, saying ‘do you know who sent us that we were banging at the door and you could not open it?’”
Mu’azu-Obah reportedly explained that he was only trying to put on clothes before coming outside to find out who was at the door.