Man who claims he was unjustly detained over Hanan Buhari sim card sues her and DSS for N500m

Tope Akinyode, lawyer to Mr Anthony Okolie, an Asaba-based businessman detained for 10 weeks by the DSS for having a SIM card previously registered in Hanan Buhari’s name, has sued all the parties involved in Okolie’s ordeal.

A suit has now been filed in which Okolie is asking President Buhari’s daughter, the Department of State Services (DSS) and MTN, to pay him N500 million compensation.

Mr Okolie age 33, was arrested on July 19, 2019 in Asaba.

The suit, with number FHC/ASB/CS/3/2020, is seeking an order to “compel the respondents (DSS, Hanan and MTN) jointly or severally to pay the applicant the sum of N500,000,000 only as general and aggravated damages for the gross and unlawful violation of the applicant’s right to acquire moveable properties, freedom of movement and self-dignity.”

Okolie who said in the suit that he was detained with handcuffs until September 22, 2019, as the DSS waited for Hanan, who was schooling in the United Kingdom, to come and clear him but she never did.

The trader also attached the receipt he was issued after purchasing the SIM card as well as the SIM certificate.

According to the affidavit, he bought the SIM card on December 8, 2018, with phone number, 09035666662, for the sum of N1,000.

Okolie asked the court to declare that his long detention was an abuse of his fundamental human rights and that the actions of the DSS contravened sections 35 and 34 of the 1999 Constitution.