Abuja lawyer sues DSS, two others over alleged harassment, rights violation

By Jude Opara

An Abuja-based human rights advocate and lawyer, Barrister David Akatugba, has dragged the FCT Command of the Department of State Services (DSS), and two other persons before the FCT High Court over alleged threats, harassment and abuse of power.

Barr. Akatugba, in the suit he filed through an originating summons, also named Mr. Mike Israel Nwadiogbu and Mr. Victor Japhet Olegbunne as second and third respondents.

He is seeking the enforcement of his fundamental rights to freedom, dignity of person, personal liberty and privacy as guaranteed under Sections 34, 35, 37 and 46 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.

The applicant alleged that operatives of the DSS, acting at the instance of the second and third respondents, had subjected him to repeated invitations, harassment, threats and intimidation over a civil transaction relating to the sale of landed property.

According to the court documents, the litigant claimed that he received series of phone calls, texts and WhatsApp messages allegedly threatening him with arrest and detention if he refused to make payments demanded by the respondents.

Barr. Akatugba asked the court to determine if the DSS has the power to intervene in a purely civil matter by inviting, threatening and detaining a citizen in order to enforce payment or settle a private dispute, without determining the points in the matter in dispute.

He further asked the court to decide whether the actions of the second and third respondents, allegedly using the instrumentality of the DSS, amounted to an abuse of state powers and a violation of his fundamental human rights.

The lawyer further cited Articles 4, 5, 6 and 12 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, as part of the legal basis for his claims.

He argued that the alleged harassment not only breached his constitutional rights but also constituted a threat to his dignity, liberty and privacy as a citizen of Nigeria.

No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.