POSTED BY NAN
He said the plaintiff ought to have been charged to court because the respondents did not have power
to lock him up for over two months without fair hearing
An FCT High Court, Apo on Thursday ordered the Department of State Services and its Director- General to pay N10 million compensation to one
Kasim Kayode for fundamental rights infringement.
The judge, Justice Peter Kekemeke, ordered the respondents to either charge Kayode to court or release him unconditionally.
Kekemeke held that the action of the DSS in detaining Kayode since April 10 was unconstitutional, degrading and inhuman.
He said the plaintiff ought to have been charged to court because the respondents did not have power
to lock him up for over two months without fair hearing.
The court stated that the right to fair hearing had been breached as provided in Section 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution, which states that every person is entitled to fair hearing.
“In democracy, the law is a king, liberty and freedom of a citizen is being breached when detention is not in accordance with the constitution,” he said.
Kekemeke also said administrative bail amounted to no bail because only the courts could grant bails in accordance with the law.
He said Kayode was given administrative bail with condition to produce a level 16 civil servant with a
landed property in Asokoro, Abuja, which he could not fulfil.
The judge noted that the 19 paragraph affidavit by Kayode’s counsel, Elisha Oloruntobi, said he was arrested at midnight at his place of work in Lagos
by security men from the DSS on April 12.
He, was however, brought to Abuja and had beendetained since then.
