Court orders SSS to pay man N500,000 over illegal detention

A Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday awarded N500,000 against the State Security Service (SSS) in favour of Ahmadu Mohmmad over his unlawful arrest and prolonged detention.

The judge, Binta Nyako, delivered the ruling in a fundamental human rights suit brought by Mr Mohammad, who was a principal Security Intelligence Officer, against the SSS as respondent.

The applicant had sued the respondent, following his unlawful and human rights violation sometimes in 2016 at the SSS headquarters in Abuja.

Mrs Nyako held that the SSS unlawfully detained the applicant for more than 48 hours, as required by law, without finding any fault against him or charging him to court.

She said the unlawful detention led the complainant coming to seek justice over abuse of his fundamental rights.

The judge held that the fundamental rights of the complainant were truly violated as the respondents failed to defend the case against them.

“I hereby order that the fundamental right bridges should be compensated with N500, 000, as a court order.”

Backstory

Speaking with journalists after the court ruling, Mr Mohammad said he was transferred to the Oyo State Command of the SSS sometime in December 2013, as a principal staff officer (Investigation).

“On the night of March 22, 2016, a group of seven suspects in custody at the Oyo State command, escaped.

“After this incident, sometime in April the same year, I was invited by the investigation team led by Abdulsamad Saifula, an officer in the service of the SSS and was alleged to be involved in the escape saga of the seven suspects from the Oyo State Command of the service, despite the fact that (I) the applicant was not on duty at the time the incident occurred.

“I was not allowed to make any explanation by the head of the investigation team, who caused and ordered that I should be arrested and detained. Hence I was arrested and detained.

“I was moved to the headquarters of the SSS in Abuja in May, 2016, where I was detained for one year and two months.

“My lawyer then went ahead to write a letter to the Attorney General of the Federation for the purpose of securing my release.

“There was no charge, information, complaint or first-hand information report that was filed by the respondent.”

The applicant, in his motion: FHC/ABJ/CS/256/2017, filed before the Federal High Court, then prayed for an order for the enforcement of his fundamental rights as guaranteed under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, pursuant to the provisions of order 2 rule (1),(2), (3), (4) and (5) of the fundamental right (enforcement procedure) rules.

Consequently, he prayed the court “to declare that the continued detention of the applicant by the respondent is illegal, unconstitutional, unwarranted and a gross violation of the fundamental human right of the applicant, an order of the court, compelling the respondent to forthwith release the applicant unconditionally and N100,000,000 compensation for violating the applicant’s fundamental right.