Harnie Gold
Member
The federal high court in Abuja on Monday March 21, ordered the State Security Service (SSS) to pay Mr Omoyele Sowore, an activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters the sum of one million naira, over the case of fundamental right enforcement suit filed by him.
The judgement was passed by, Judge Obiora Egwuato, who said that, his arrest was illegal.
The plaintiff had on November 15, 2019, on a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1407/2019 challenged the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Bichi, and attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), for their illegal arrest and detention
Also on December 8, 2021, the Judge, Mrs Chikere, delivering judgement on the human rights suit filed by Mr Sowore, had ordered the State Security Service (SSS) to release Mr Sowore's iPhone and the sum of N10,000 which was alleged, to have been forcefully taken from the activist without any order from court.
The order on Monday, came three months after a federal high court in Abuja, had ordered the SSS to pay Mr Sowore the sum of two million naira, making it yet another victory over the government by him.
Marshal Abubakar, one of Mr Sowore's lawyer and also a lawyer with the law firm of the prominent Nigerian human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has described Monday’s judgement as another victory recorded against the “notorious” SSS.
According to him, it was the affirmation of the right of Mr Sowore and any Nigerian “to protest, freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and right to movement.”
Mr Sowore was arrested in Lagos on August 3, 2019, for planning to organise a protest tagged: “#RevolutionNow” by the men of State Security Service.