A Federal High Court sitting in Benin on Wednesday, fixed April 27 for judgment in a suit filed by Ms Odegua Okojie, a single mother, demanding N350 million from the Department of State Services (DSS) and a Lebanese businessman over alleged illegal detention.
Joined in the suit No. FHC/B/cs/120/2019, are the Director-General, DSS, Director, Edo command of the DSS and Charles Makhoul, a Lebanese businessman.
Justice M.G. Umar, fixed the date after parties in the suit adopted their final written addresses.
Earlier, counsel to the applicant, T.A. Akahomen, in adopting his address, urged the court to order the respondents to pay his client N300 million in damages over the violation of her fundamental rights.
He also prayed the court to award his client N50 million as exemplary damages for the unlawful and unwarranted infraction on her rights.
In his reply, Mr Jospeh Besong, counsel to the DSS and Mrs O. A Odigie, the 2nd and 3rd respondent’s counsel, urged the court to discountenance the application of the applicant for lacking in merit.
NAN reports that Odegua alleged that the DSS and the businessman illegally detained her for nine days.
The applicant claimed that during the detention, she was denied access to her lawyer and family members and her telephone seized.
Odegua alleged that she was first taken into DSS facility in Benin before being whisked to Abuja without her knowing the offence she committed.
She alleged that she was taken into custody at night and her two-year-old daughter was agitated.
She alleged that the illegal detention from July 9 to July 16, 2019, was not only an infringement of her fundamental human rights but also unlawful and unconstitutional. (NAN)
