Activist and coverner of #RevolutionNow, Omoyele Sowore, has won a lawsuit he filed against the Department of State Services (DSS) as a Federal High Court, Abuja, ruled in his favour.
A Federal High Court, Abuja, on Wednesday, ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) to pay Sowore the sum of N2 million over unlawful seizure of his mobile phone in 2019 at the point of his arrest.
Justice Anwuli Chikere who made the pronouncement also ordered the DSS to release immediately the iPhones and the sum of N10,000, which were allegedly taken away from Sowore.
According to reports from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Sowore, through his lawyer, Funmi Falana, in a fundamental rights enforcement suit, alleged that the operatives of the DSS, on Aug. 3, 2019, at a hotel in Lagos, forcefully took away his iPhones and the sum of N10, 000 when he was arrested on allegations bordering on treasonable felony and terrorism.
The judge ordered the DSS, the 1st respondent in the case, to also tender an apology in two national dailies within two months.
Chikere described the forceful seizure of the personal property of the publisher of SaharaReporters as “illegal, unconstitutional, null and void and gross violation of his fundamental rights as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.
She said the DSS ought to have obtained a court order before the confiscation of his belongings and that the seizure can not be regarded as ‘’ temporary” since 2019.
The judge also held that the claim by the DSS that his phones were still under investigation since 2019 over his alleged link with terrorists was untenable, illegal and unconstitutional.
Sowore’s lawyer, Falana, while reacting to the judgement, expressed happiness and described it as a victory for justice.