Earlier this year, Chocolate City Group President, Audu Maikori, was arrested and detained by the Police on the orders of the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai.

Maikori was arrested for posting inciting tweets about an alleged case of murder by Fulani herdsmen in Kaduna. This turned out to be false, and Maikori took down the tweets and apologised, but he was arrested anyway.

Delivering judgment in a Federal High Court in Abuja today, Justice John Tsoho said that Maikori’s arrest in Lagos was unlawful, and ordered respondents to the suit to pay damages to the tune of N40 million, plus N1,430 as the cost of instituting the fundamental human rights enforcement suit which Maikori filed in May, 2017.

The respondents include Governor El-Rufai, Inspector General of Police, the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney-General of Kaduna State.

However, the judge also ruled that the Police had the right to arrest suspects for allegedly violating the Law on the cyberspace, and that his judgment was not meant to interfere with the ongoing trial of Maikori in Kaduna.