Ecowas Court fines FG $3.3m for Apo killings

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) court has fined the Nigerian government $3.3million for the September 2013 killing of eight citizens at Apo district, Abuja.
In a ruling on Tuesday, the regional court ordered Nigeria to pay a compensatory damage of $200,000 to each of the family of the deceased citizens and $150,000 to each of those wounded.
In a suit filed on behalf of the victims by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), the Applicants had asked the Court for a declaration that they were entitled to the right to life and that the shooting resulting in death and injury constituted a flagrant abuse of their fundamental human rights to life and dignity of the person as enshrined under international law.
The applicants were represented by seven lawyers led by Aliyu Umar. They asked for $100 million in compensation for the families of each of the deceased and $10 million each for the surviving victims as compensation for their mutilation.
Leading four other lawyers, Fabian Ajogwu, who represented the Federal Government argued that SERAP lacked legal personality and has no locus standi to bring the application, not being a victim or relative of the victim of any human rights violation and has not shown evidence of authority to represent the victims.
He contended that the government had a duty under the country’s constitution to protect the lives and property of citizens; that the law enforcement agents acted within the law in a situation of justifiable necessity while the Applicants’ request for monetary compensation cannot be granted in view of the circumstances of the case.
In the judgement read by Honorable Justice Friday Chijioke Nwoke, the Court acknowledged the validity of the argument that only direct victims could approach the Court for remedy for human rights violations, it said that there were exceptions to the rule.
Justice Nwoke said that there was a consensus about the events of that day from both parties mainly that armed agents of the government invaded an uncompleted building occupied by the Applicants, killed some of them and wounded others.
The only issue for determination, the Judges held, is whether the injury caused by the agents of the government constituted a violation of their human rights especially the right to life and whether the death of the deceased was justified by law.
In this regard, the Court held that the Federal Government had a responsibility to protect everyone’s right to life which was not diminished in the context of counter-terrorism and obliged under international instruments to investigate deaths ‘irrespective of how the authorities found about the death whether State authorities were involved or the circumstances’.
Relying on the provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Nigerian Constitution and declarations of the UN Human Rights Committee regarding the circumstances under which persons could be deprived of life, the Court concluded that the ‘legality of killing outside the context of armed conflict as in this case, was governed by human rights standards especially the ones concerning the use of force.