A Kaduna State High Court has ruled that a bid by the Commissioner of Police to suspend all political meetings and rallies across the state was unlawful, unconstitutional, and amounted to a gross abuse of power.
The court further ordered the police to pay N15 million in damages to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for the violation of its fundamental rights.
Delivering the judgement on Wednesday, Justice Murtala J. Zubairu held that the police acted beyond their legal mandate by seeking judicial authority to impose a blanket ban on political activities, warning that such conduct cannot be tolerated in a constitutional democracy.
The case, marked KDH/KAD/NPF/1315/2025, was filed on September 4, 2025, by the Commissioner of Police against the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The police sought to halt political gatherings pending investigations into alleged threats of violence.
However, the court dismissed the suit as incompetent and politically motivated and instead upheld a counterclaim by the SDP, which accused the police of acting with bias, breaching their statutory responsibilities, and attempting to suppress opposition voices.
“The notion that the police can indefinitely suspend the fundamental rights of association and assembly of every political party in a state is an overreach and constitutes an abuse of statutory powers. The duty of the police is to provide security for peaceful assemblies, not to ban them preemptively based on vague fears or speculative intelligence,” Justice Zubairu declared.
He emphasised that the 1999 Constitution guarantees citizens’ freedom of association and assembly under Section 40, and that the Police Act 2020 does not override those protections.
“The Applicant’s reliance on the Police Act 2020 cannot override Section 40 of the Constitution… To do otherwise would be an invitation to anarchy and a breach of the social contract,” he said.
Citing legal precedents, including Inspector-General of Police v. All Nigeria Peoples Party (2007) and All Progressives Congress v. Inspector-General of Police (2014), the court reinforced that the police have no legal grounds to prohibit peaceful political gatherings.
In its counterclaim against the police application, the SDP informed the court that it was not responsible for the August 30 violence referenced by the police but rather a victim of it. The party said it had previously warned the police, via a petition dated August 14, about the recruitment of political thugs by the ruling party. The petition, the party claimed, was ignored.
The party also argued that the meeting scheduled for September 4, the very event the police sought to suspend, was not a political rally but “a peaceful commiseration visit”.
Justice Zubairu agreed with the SDP’s account, stating, “The evidence before this court shows a clear abdication of duty by the applicant (police). Rather than protect the victims of the August 30 incident, the police sought judicial cover to curtail their rights. This is unacceptable in a constitutional democracy.”
The court found that the police breached their obligations under Sections 4, 83, and 84 of the Police Act 2020, which mandate law enforcement to provide adequate security for assemblies and processions.
Additionally, the court set aside an interim injunction earlier obtained by the police, noting that it was granted without the required undertaking as to damages, violating the Supreme Court’s ruling in Kotoye v CBN (1989).
“The ex parte order obtained without the required undertaking is irregular, oppressive, and contrary to law. The resulting injury to the respondents must be compensated,” the judge ruled.
The court awarded the SDP N15 million in damages, broken down as N5 million for the arbitrary suspension of the party’s meeting, N5 million for the wrongful injunction, and N5 million for the police’s failure to investigate the August 30 attack.
Justice Zubairu further directed the police to investigate all pending petitions and submit a comprehensive report to the Attorney-General of Kaduna State within 60 days.
The Kaduna police command is yet to formally react to the judgement as of the time of filing this report. Several efforts to reach the Command’s spokesperson, DSP Mansir Hassan, were unsuccessful, as calls to his phone line did not connect.
