Court orders newspaper, police to pay N6m damages

Court

A Federal High Court in Maiduguri, Borno State, has ordered the National Trail Newspaper, an Abuja-based weekly tabloid, and its Editor-in-Chief, Chief Inuwa Bwala, to pay Yusuf Dikko N6 million, being damages for false publication and illegal detention.

Delivering judgment on suit filed on September 8, 2015 and September 11, 2015, Justice Mohammed Tanko Salihu ordered that the arrest and detention of Yusuf Dikko at that material time by Borno State Police Command was unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional.

He also declared that the publication made by Trail and Inuwa Bwala on April 27 to May 3, 2015, that Dikko signed a two-page petition against the Inspector General of Police was false.

Dikko had deposed to a seven-paragraph affidavit seeking N100 million compensation for general damages, ridiculing and embarrassment caused by the unlawful publication.

Source: Vanguard