Court Orders DSS To Pay N10.5m As Compensation To Jones Abiri

The Federal High Court has ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) to pay the sum of N10.5 million as compensation to journalist, Jones Abiri, over his illegal detention for two years by the security agency.

At the resumed hearing on Thursday, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba stated that the DSS did not deny arresting and detaining him since July 2016, denying him access to his doctors, family and friends.

He further stated that when Abiri was eventually charged to court earlier this year, he was not charged with the crimes for which he was arrested.

The judge then ruled that the DSS acted outside the provisions of the law regarding the Terrorism Prevention Act, and therefore, ordered the agency to pay the sum.

Mr Abiri, a Bayelsa-based journalist and publisher of the Weekly Source Magazine, was arrested at his office in Yenagoa, the state capital, for his alleged link to armed militancy in the Niger Delta region, an allegation he denied.