Court of Appeal says Kaduna State Government Violated the Rights of Audu Maikori

The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Friday ruled against the Kaduna State Government for unlawful arrest and detention of Chocolate City Boss, Audu Maikori, and directed the state government to pay the victim sum of N10.5 million as damages.

The news was shared by human rights activist, Chidi Odinkalu. He tweeted:

"#Breaking: In a judgment just delivered in Abuja, #Nigeria’s Court of Appeal affirms that @contactkdsg egregiously violated the rights of @Audu when they abducted him from Lagos to Kaduna in 2017. The Court assessed damages at N10.5m in favour of @AuduMaikori 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."

In 2017, Maikori slammed a violation of human rights suit against Governor Nasir El-Rufai, on the grounds of fundamental rights violation, undue harassment and intimidation by the Kaduna State government, the State Governor and the Nigeria Police, of which he demanded N10 billion as damages.

The tweet had to do with the purported killing of five College of Education students in Gidan-Waya, Kaduna State, killed on their way to school by armed Fulani herdsmen. He later apologised for the tweet, adding that his driver narrated the story to him, and his (driver) brother was among the victims.

He was subsequently transferred to Force Headquarters in Abuja for interrogations and was eventually released on bail and cleared of any complicity by the police.

Maikori was later rearrested and taken to Kaduna where he was detained for four days before he was charged to court. He was granted bail on health grounds.