Just in: Court orders DSS to pay Sowore N2m over unlawful seizure of his phones

By Ajuma Edwina Ameh

Sahara Reporters Publisher and activist, Omoyele Sowore, is now N2 million richer as a Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) to pay N2 million as damages over the unlawful seizure of his phone in 2019.

The court also ordered that the phones and money seized from him in August 2019 be returned to him, adding that the DSS should apologize to Sowore publicly in two national dailies.

Persecondnews recalls that the Sahara Reporters Publisher and activist had instituted a suit against the secret service agency, compelling the agency to return his seized phones after it was confiscated by them following his arrest on August 2, 2019.

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Despite being granted bail by two courts, the DSS failed to release the activist but eventually released him on December 24, 2019.

Delivering judgment in the suit on Wednesday, Justice Anwuli Chiekere,held that “the suit is not an abuse of court process as claimed by the respondent’s counsel.”

Chikere described the forceful seizure of the personal property of the SaharaReporters publisher as “illegal, unconstitutional, null and void and gross violation of his fundamental rights as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.”

“The DSS ought to have obtained a court order before the confiscation of his belongings, the seizure can no be regarded as temporary since 2019.”