By Innocent Anaba

The Federal Government, yesterday, asked the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos, to set aside the judgment of a Federal High Court in Lagos, which held that seizure and withdrawal of the passport of the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, was illegal and a breach of his fundamental right to freedom of movement.

The lower court judge, Justice Ibrahim Buba had in his judgment in the suit by Sanusi, seeking to restrain the police and the Department of State Services, DSS,from infringing on his fundamental human rights, following his detention and seizure of his passport at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos on the day he was removed as the CBN governor, ordered the government to return his seized international passport to him.

The lower court also ordered that the government should apologise to the embattled suspended CBN governor and consequently awarded him N50 million as exemplary damages for the embarrassment caused him by the seizure.

But in the appeal filed by counsel to the Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, the Federal Government is asking the Court of Appeal to set aside the judgment of the