Court Dismisses Suit Filed By Boko Haram’s Ex-Spokesman

A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed the application filed by former spokesperson of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, Ali Sanda Koduga, for lacking in merit.

Konduga, who was convicted for terrorism crime and sentenced to three years imprisonment by a magistrate court in 2011, alleged that he was unlawfully detained by the Department of State Service (DSS), after serving his jail term.

He approached the court to enforce his fundamental human rights, demanding N500 million as compensation for the alleged breach of his fundamental human rights.

However, his appeal did not scale through as Justice Anwuli Chikere, dismissed his application.

According to his counsel, Emmanuel Edu, the applicant was seeking his fundamental rights after what he described ‘illegal detention’.

“He was supposed to be released after three years because if you have served your sentence as stipulated by the court, you were supposed to be released, but he was further detained for another three years before he was released.

“So the applicant was seeking for his fundamental right; in an egalitarian society like Nigeria, all we need to do is for a wrongdoer to get justice; there is a proportionate amount of sentence that is required for any crime.

“So if that person has served that, he shouldn’t be subjected to any other sentence or illegal detention and that’s what we were trying to seek that justice should be done.

Edu said that the court declared that the applicant’s detention “cannot be declared unlawful and unconstitutional and his fundamental rights have not been infringed upon.”