Court orders DSS to pay N2m to Sowore over illegal seizure of his phones

A federal high court in Abuja has ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) to pay the sum of N2 million as general damages to publisher and activist, Omoyele Sowore, over the unlawful seizure of his phone in 2019.

The DSS arrested Sowore on August 2, 2019, and confiscated his phones. Despite being granted bail by two courts, the DSS failed to release the activist. He was, however, eventually released on December 24, 2019.

Sowore then instituted a suit against the secret service to compel the agency to return his seized phones.

Delivering judgment in the suit today December 8, Justice Anwuli Chiekere held that the suit is not an abuse of court process as claimed by the respondent’s counsel.

Consequently, she ordered that the phones and money seized from Sowore in August 2019 be returned to him and N2 million paid to him as damages. She also ordered the DSS to apologize to him publicly in two national dailies.