Court awards Abiri N10m for illegal detention

A Federal High Court, Abuja , yesterday described the two years detention of a journalist, Jones Abiri, as outright conviction and ordered government to pay him N10 million in damages.
Abiri was arrested August 2016 and detained for two years after which his legal team, led by human rights activist, Femi Falana, SAN, filed a fundamental suit against the federal government.
And following consistent public outcry by various rights groups, the media and individuals, the journalist was arraigned on charges bordering on militancy, at an Abuja magistrate court.
Delivering his ruling, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, said the federal government had no right to detain Abiri after taking his statement in 2016.
“Having taken his statement, the applicant should have been arraigned,” the court ruled.
He described as baseless the claim by the federal government that the journalist was detained in the national security was baseless.
He further ruled that the federal government should have filled the suit against the defendant and asked the court to refuse him bail, and leave that at the court’s discretion.
Justice Dimgba therefore ruled that Abiri’s detention is “illegal and an abuse of his fundamental rights.”