An investigative journalist, Zainab Sodiq, has filed a ₦4bn fundamental rights enforcement suit against the Department of State Services before the Federal High Court in Abuja, alleging unlawful arrest, detention and continued seizure of her work tools.
Also joined in the suit are the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Director-General of the DSS, the DSS and one of its operatives, Abdulwahab Habib.
According to court documents, Sodiq was travelling from Lagos to Abuja when aviation security officials intercepted her over a DJI Mavic Air 2 drone found in her possession and handed her over to a DSS officer identified as Ifeanyi.
The documents stated that the officer confiscated the drone and informed her that she needed an End User Certificate before it could be released, directing her to report to another DSS officer, Musa, in Abuja to retrieve it.
However, Sodiq alleged that when she arrived at the DSS office in Abuja on July 8, 2026, she was arrested at gunpoint instead of recovering the drone.
She further claimed that DSS operatives retrieved her personal belongings from a taxi waiting outside the premises before taking her to the agency’s National Headquarters.
The applicant alleged that she was detained until July 10 without access to her family, interrogated over her journalistic activities and later released without being charged before any court.
She argued that the respondents violated her constitutional rights to dignity, personal liberty, privacy, freedom of expression, property and fair hearing as guaranteed under the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Sodiq further alleged that the DSS has continued to withhold her iPhone 13 Pro, Samsung Galaxy A15, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 16 Pro Max and DJI Mavic Air drone, describing them as essential tools for her work.
The suit also challenges the respondents’ reliance on what they described as “NSA Extant Regulations” on drone possession without an End User Certificate.
According to the applicant, no law passed by the National Assembly criminalises the possession or transportation of her commercially available drone, arguing that executive directives cannot create criminal offences or justify arrest and detention without statutory backing.
Among the reliefs sought, Sodiq asked the court to declare her arrest and detention unconstitutional, order the immediate release of all her seized devices, restrain the respondents from further violating her rights and award her ₦2bn as general damages and another ₦2bn as exemplary and aggravated damages.
Counsel to the applicant, Peter Femi Joseph, said the case raises important constitutional questions on the limits of executive powers, digital privacy, press freedom and the protection of journalists.
He added that the suit would enable the court to determine whether security agencies can lawfully arrest and detain citizens based on executive directives that have not been enacted into law and whether journalists’ equipment can be retained indefinitely without judicial authorisation or pending criminal proceedings.
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