The Court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Wednesday ordered Nigeria to pay $3.25 million in compensation to families and victims for the extrajudicial killings of eight civilians and the wounding of 11 others shot by soldiers and secret service agents in Abuja.
The court said there is no evidence to back the stance of the Nigerian Army and Department of State Services (DSS) that troops fired in self-defence on an alleged group of Boko Haram extremists on the night of September 20, 2013.
The three-judge panel led by Judge Friday Chijioke Nwoke found the Nigerian state liable for the “barbaric, illegal and unconstitutional” deaths and injuries. It ordered the government to pay $200,000 to the families of each man killed and $150,000 to each of those wounded.
Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission investigated the shootings and also ordered the government to pay victims compensation, which never has been paid. The government frequently ignores court orders to pay compensation.
The victims in the Apo suburb of Abuja were squatting in an unfinished building when they were killed by security agents.
The DSS had gone to great length to convince the public that the shootout followed intelligence reports which showed that the uncompleted building was venue for meeting of the Boko Haram suspects.
Spokesperson for the agency at the time, Marilyn Orgar, conducted journalists round the property after the incidence and claimed security agents came under gun attack from the building as they approached it, adding that the security men returned fire-for-fire.
The DSS even paraded two young men whose names were given simply as Kaman Abdullahi and Adamu, as those who provided the information on the presence of the alleged Boko Haram suspects which they said posed serious threat to peace and security at the Apo District.
At the time, the military did not respond to media reports suggesting the raid was requested by a retired army officer who owned the building and wanted the squatters out.
Those killed were Nura Abdullahi, Ashiru Musa, Abdullahi Manmman, Buhari Ibrahim, Suleiman Ibrahim, Ahmadu Musa, Nasir Adamu and Musa Yobe.
Those injured were Muttaka Abubakar, Sani Abdulrahman, Nuhu Ibrahim, Ibrahim Mohammed, Ibrahim Aliyu , Yahaya Bello, Abubakar Auwal, Yusuf Abubakar, Ibrahim Bala, Murtala Salihu and Sanni Usman.
A non-governmental organisation (NGO), The Incorporated Trustees of Fiscal and Civil Right Enlightenment Foundation, had on behalf of the deceased taken Nigeria, the army and the DSS to the regional court to challenge the legality of the killings.
The ECOWAS court ruling is the latest blow against Nigeria’s security forces. Amnesty International has accused the army of being responsible for the deaths of some 8,000 civilian detainees in its fight against the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast.
In December, the military gunned down hundreds of Shiites over three days in the northern town of Zaria, and this year it has been accused of killing an unknown number of civilians in a crackdown on militants operating in the oil-producing south.
