A federal high court in Abuja has ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) to pay the sum of N2 million as general damages to Omoyele Sowore, an activist, over the unlawful seizure of his phone in 2019.

The DSS arrested Sowore on August 2, 2019. Despite being granted bail by two courts, the DSS failed to release the activist.

He was, however, eventually released on December 24, 2019.

Sowore then instituted a suit against the secret service to compel the agency to return his seized phones.

Delivering judgment in the suit on Wednesday, Anwuli Chiekere, presiding judge, held that the suit is not an abuse of court process as claimed by the respondent’s counsel.

Consequently, she ordered that the phones and money seized from Sowore in August 2019 should be returned to him and N2 million paid to him as damages.

She also ordered the DSS to apologise to the plaintiff publicly in two national dailies.