A Federal High Court has slammed a N10 million fine against the Department of State Services (DSS) for the 10 weeks detention of Anthony Okolie over an MTN SIM Card once used by the daughter of President Muhammadu Buhari, Hanan.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the Federal High Court sitting in Asaba, the capital of Delta State awarded the N10 million fine against the DSS on Thursday, while delivering its judgment on the SIM Card case filed by Okolie.
Okolie was in 2019 detained for over 10 weeks following his arrest by the men of the DSS for buying and using an MTN SIM card which was previously used and abandoned by Hanan Buhari.
After his detention, Okolie’s lawyer, Tope Akinyode, sued the DSS, MTN and Hanan, stating that the trio jointly violated his client’s fundamental human rights.
Telecoms company, MTN, had recycled the mobile telephone number for sale after it became dormant for a long time. Okolie still has receipt he was given for the purchase of the SIM in question.
Okolie’s lawyer had urged the court to award monetary compensation of N500 million jointly or severally against the defendants.
However, in his ruling, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba slammed the N10 million fine against the DSS for illegally detaining Okolie.