The Federal High sitting in Abuja, on Thursday, ordered the Federal Government to pay journalist Jones Abiri N10 million in damages.
Mr Abiri who was arrested in August 2016 had been detained for two years till his lawyers filed a fundamental suit against the Federal government that got him freed.
Delivering the judgement, Judge Nnamdi Dimgba, said the federal government had no right to detain Mr Abiri after taking his statement in 2016.
“Having taken his statement, the applicant should have been arraigned,” Mr Dimgba ruled.
The court, therefore, declared Mr Abiri’s detention was illegal and an abuse of his fundamental rights.
