The Federal High Court, sitting in Port Harcourt, has ordered the
Federal Government to pay N37.6 billion as compensation to the people of
Odi in Bayelsa State for the invasion of their community by soldiers in
1999.
The judgment is coming 12 years after the military invaded Odi and
allegedly engaged in wanton destruction of lives and property, an action
that drew worldwide condemnation.
Justice Lambo Akambi while delivering the judgment yesterday in a suit
filed by Professor Kobina Keme-Ebi Imananagha, Chief Ndu Gwagha, Chief
Shadrack Agadah, Mr. Idoni Ingezi and Mr. Nwaka Echomgbe, on behalf of
the community, directed that the payment be made within the next 21
days.
Akambi, in the judgment, described the action of the military as
genocidal, brutish, reckless and a gross violation of the rights of the
victims to life and to own property.
In the suit filed by their counsel, Lucius Nwosu (SAN), Lawal Rabana
(SAN) and Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN), the community urged the court to
declare that the invasion of Odi and the attendant assault, battery,
maiming, shelling, shootings and cold-blooded murder of its people as
well as the destruction of their property by the military, acting under
presidential directive, was tantamount to a gross violation of the
people’s fundamental human rights to life, dignity and personal liberty.
As the judge was about to deliver the judgment Tuesday, counsel to the
Minister of Defence and a director in the Ministry of Defence, Mallam
Jimoh Adamu, told the court that he had filed a fresh application
seeking for an extension of time on the grounds that his principal was
not served any of the court processes.
Justice Akambi dismissed his plea after going through court records,
which indicated that the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) was
duly served.
He said the claim of the counsel to the president that troops were
deployed in Odi on November 20, 1999 to flush out secessionist militants
who had killed seven policemen and unleashed mayhem on the community
was false.
He added that the counsel’s claim contravened that of President
Goodluck Jonathan’s recent assertion on the Nigerian Television
Authority (NTA) that no militant was killed in Odi during the military
incursion and that those brutally murdered were innocent victims.
He said Jonathan’s statement on the Odi matter was an acknowledgement
of the enthronement of the rule of law as opposed to the enthronement of
guns.
According to him, the president's statement is an assurance to the
international community that those who respect the law are now governing
Nigeria.
Justice Akambi, who described the destruction of Odi as comprehensive
and total as nothing was spared by the soldiers, said the Federal
Government brazenly violated the fundamental human rights of the victims
to movement, life and to own property and live peacefully in their
ancestral home.
He ordered that special damages of N17,618,871 and general damages of
N20 billion respectively be paid to the community as compensation.
He also issued a perpetual injunction restraining the respondents and their agents from invading Odi and bombing the community.
In his reaction, lead counsel to the plaintiffs, Nwosu, lauded the
judge for his courage and said the judgment would check executive
recklessness in the country.
Similarly, counsel to the president and to the Chief of Defence Staff,
Akolika Awa, said the judge was fair even though her client lost the
case.
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