A lawyer, Mr Olukoya Ogungbeje, has sued the Federal
Government, demanding N200bn compensation for the at least 214 persons allegedly
killed this year by armed herdsmen in Benue and Plateau states.
Apart from seeking compensation, the applicant, acting in
his capacity as the Convener of the Movement Against Killings in Nigeria,
sought a court order compelling the Federal Government to arrest and prosecute
the killer herdsmen and their accomplices in a court of competent jurisdiction.
The applicant who blamed the killings on “grave
constitutional infraction and shirking of constitutional responsibility by the
respondents,” filed two separate fundamental human rights enforcement suits to
seek redress for the deceased.
The Federal Government, President Muhammadu Buhari and the
Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), are the three
respondents to each of the two suits.
The plaintiff filed one of the suits in the Makurdi Division of the Federal
High Court, demanding N100bn compensation each for the 114 persons said to have
been killed by the killer herdsmen in Benue State and another in the Jos
Division of the court demanding another sum of N100bn for the over 100 others
killed in Plateau State.
The lawyer blamed the killings on the failure of the
respondents to the suit (the Federal Government, Buhari and the AGF) “to
discharge their constitutional responsibility in strict compliance with
Sections 33, 46 and 14(2)(a) and (b) of the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria.”
The applicant alleged that the failure of the three
respondents to discharge their constitutional duties “culminated in the
killings and extrajudicial murder of the deceased persons by armed killer
herdsmen.”
He argued that the killings violated the deceased victims’
rights to life guaranteed under Sections 33 and 46 under Chapter IV of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In the suit marked FHC/MKA/CS/43/2018, filed before the
Federal High Court in Makurdi, on August 23, 2018, the applicant said that of
the 114 massacred by herdsmen in Benue State, 73 of them were killed on January
1, 2018, in Logo and Guma Local Government Areas, while 26 others were killed
on March 5, 2018, in Okpokwu LGA.
He noted that the rest of the 15 victims in Benue State
included two Catholic priests namely, Rev. Fathers Joseph Gor and Felix
Tyolaha, who were hacked down by the assailants on April 24, 2018, during a mass at St Ignatius Quasi Parish at
Ukpor-Mbalom in Ayar-Mbalom Community of Gwer East Local Government of the
state.
In the other suit filed before the Jos Division of the
Federal High Court on August 27, 2018, and marked, FHC/J/CS/40/2018, the
applicant said the herdsmen on June 23 and 24, 2018, killed “over 100” persons in 11 communities
in Barkin Ladi, Riyom and Jos South Local Governments Areas of Plateau State.
No comments:
Post a Comment