A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) to pay Omoyele Sowore, the sum of N2 million over unlawful seizure of his two iphones phone in 2019 when he was arrested.
Delivering judgement, the Presiding Judge, Hon. Justice Anwuli Chikere, also ordered the DSS to release the iPhones and the sum of N10,000 which were alleged to have been forcefully taken away from him without court warrant.
The court further ordered the DSS, to tender an apology in two national dailies within two months.
The Court described untenable, illegal and unconstitutional its claim that Sowore’s phones were still under investigation since 2019 over his alleged link with terrorists.
Hon. Justice Chikere held that the forceful seizure of the personal property of Sowore without a valid court order was illegal, unconstitutional, null and void, and gross violation of his fundamental rights as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.
Sowore’s Counsel, Funmi Falana, who filed a fundamental rights enforcement suit, had alleged that 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.
Funmi Falana urged the to dismiss the preliminary objections and order the return of Sowore’s phones as well as pay N20 million in damages to the applicant.
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