Kenneth Gbagi, the former state minister for education, was fined by a Delta State High Court in Warri for mistreating employees, according to NAN.
Gbagi is running for governor of Delta State on the Social Democratic Party (SDP) ticket in 2023.
He was accused of ordering four employees at his Signatious Hotel in Effurun to remove their clothes and be photographed in connection with a theft case.
Gbagi applied to Justice Taiwo Taiwo on September 30, 2020, asking for a ruling barring the police and others from detaining him.
However, the police asked the Federal High Court in Abuja in February 2021 to permit the security agency to look into him.
In her decision, Justice Vera Agbodje ordered Gbagi to pay N1 million for violating Victor Ephraim’s fundamental human rights.
The litigant’s lawyer, Kunle Edun had filed lawsuit No. EHC/FHR/80/2020 against the politician and Signatious Hotel.
Ephraim said between Sept. 17 and 18, 2020, Gbagi used the policemen attached to him to forcefully strip him.
The employee recalled how he dumped him inside Gbagi’s car boot and drove to his community.
Ephraim told the court that he was tortured and dehumanised alongside three other female staff of the hotel.
The claimant said they were all stripped naked and paraded publicly for allegedly failing to remit money paid by a guest.
He added that Gbagi collected their ATM cards and transferred all the money in their bank accounts to the hotel’s account.
Justice Agbodje held that the stories presented by Gbagi were false, concocted, and not believable.
The judge noted that Gbagi took laws into his own hands by torturing his ex-staff and consequently fined him.
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