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An Appeal Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the Kaduna State Government to pay N10.5m as damages to the President of Chocolate City Group, Audu Maikori.
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The court on Friday upheld the ruling of the Federal High Court that the state government violated the rights of Maikori when he was arrested in Lagos in 2017 by a team of policemen and was transferred to the Force Headquarters in Abuja for misinforming the public via his tweets on happenings in Southern Kaduna.
The court assessed damages at N10.5 million in favour of Maikori. The appeal court reduced the damages awarded by the high court from N40 million to N10.5 million.
In 2017, Maikori filed a N10 billion lawsuit against Governor Nasir El-Rufai and Kaduna state government, accusing the state of violating his human rights following his arrest. He was first arrested in Lagos on February 17, 2017, after the Kaduna State Government filed a petition accusing Maikori of posting inciting materials on the internet.
In the report which was published on his Twitter page, Maikori had allegedly posted that some Southern Kaduna students were killed by Fulani herdsmen, for which he later apologised, stressing that his driver had misinformed him.
He was subsequently transferred to Force Headquarters in Abuja for interrogation where he was eventually released on bail and cleared of any complicity by the Police Force headquarters.
Audu Maikori was then rearrested and taken to Kaduna where he was detained for four days before he was charged to court. He was later granted bail by the court on health ground.
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