Court orders DSS to pay detained journalist Jones Abiri N10m
The Department of State Services (DSS) has been ordered to pay Jones Abiri N10 million for illegally detaining him for two years.
The publisher of Weekly Source Newspaper was accused by the DSS of heading the joint revolutionary council of the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force, and demanding money from oil companies.
Abiri was arrested in July 2016 and was in detention until a public outcry forced the DSS to take him to court for the first time in July 2018 since his arrest. He regained freedom in August.
He had asked for N200 million as compensation from the Federal Government.
A federal high court sitting in Abuja ruled on Thursday that the DSS violated Abiri’s rights.
“Having taken his statement, the applicant should have been arraigned,” the presiding judge, Nnamdi Dimgba said.
Dimgba said a suit should have been filed against Abiri in court by the Federal Government. He also said if the FG was bent on holding him, it could have followed the suit with a plea to refuse him bail.
