Ex-Boko Haram spokesman sues DSS, AGF for damages

An FCT High Court Maitama on Thursday fixed May 23, for hearing a N500, 000 aggravated damages suit filed by a former spokesman of the insurgent group, Boko Haram, Ali Sanda Konduga.

Konduga dragged the Director-General, Department of Security Services (DSS) and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, over alleged breach of his fundamental rights.

Konduga through his counsel, Mr Mohammed Tola, filed a suit before Justice Samira Bature alleging that he was kept in detention for an extra three years after serving his three-year jail term before he was released in 2016.

Konduga was convicted by a Chief Magistrates’ Court in Abuja and sentenced to three years imprisonment for criminal intimidation in 2011.

In the suit, Konduga claimed that he was kept in the custody of the DSS instead of the conventional prison to serve his term because the government wanted him to serve as a key witness to prove a terrorism charge against Sen. Ali Ndume in a Federal High Court in Abuja.

He further stated as of the time of his release, he was never called to testify in the matter or any other matter.

Konduga said that he was taken to the DSS’s office in Maiduguri on Sept. 8, 2016 and was released on Sept. 9, 2016 to his parents.

He alleged that DSS offered his family the sum of N700, 000 when he was released, and informed his family that the money was meant for his medical treatment.

The gesture, Konduga said showed that the DSS knew he was entitled to compensation for his illegal and unlawful detention, adding that the Service refused to pay him any other compensation except the N700, 000.

He further stated that some individuals attacked him after he was released in 2016 and he sustained head injury from the attack.

He added that as a result of the injury he sustained, the police from GRA Police Station, Maiduguri, Borno, took him into protective custody and later referred him to the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Maiduguri.

He therefore, demanded for unreserved public apology in three national newspapers.

Konduga also prayed for an order of the court, directing the respondents to jointly and severally pay him N500, 000 as aggravated damages and compensation for the illegal, unconstitutional and unlawful detention.