By Safi Jimba
False imprisonment (and slander) IV
- Kuku v. F. Olushoga (1960) W.N.L.R 136, HIGH CT. – IBRWIN J.: The defendant owned property including a gold chain, which she kept in the Olushoga family house of her deceased husband, but it disappeared eight months after his death. The plaintiff, a substantial trader and a member of defendant’s deceased husband’s Olushoga family, wore a gold chain at an Ileya Festival. It is not a common ornament, being worn only on special occasions, and the defendant recognizing the chain as the same as, or similar to, the one believed stolen from her family house, made a report to the Nigeria police on the same day. Following the swearing of an information the magistrate issued a warrant to search the plaintiff’s house. Neither warrant nor information was produced in evidence, and it was not suggested that the information had been sworn by the defendant.
During the search of the plaintiff’s house, at which the defendant was present at the invitation of the police, a gold cord chain and a piece of a similar chain were found, and the plaintiff was taken to the police station, but released on bail a few hours later. An investigation was held, but this proved to be inconclusive, and the chain and the other piece were returned to the plaintiff, on the instructions of the assistant-superintendent, who was not called as a witness.
