Court slams N85.5m damages on Nigeria Army for murder

The suit was filed before the court on April 28, 2009, by a human rights organization, Access to Justice, on behalf of the family of the deceased. The Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff and the Attorney General of the Federation were joined as co-defendants in the suit. The late Enilari was said to have been brutally assaulted by some officers of the Nigerian Army on January 27, 2009 along Airways junction in Apapa, Lagos. He later died on January 29, 2009, due to head injuries he sustained during the assault. Eyewitness accounts revealed that Mr. Enilari was standing by his truck driver at the Airways junction in Apapa, when a vehicle suddenly hit him. The deceased ran to stop the driver of the vehicle from fleeing, but the occupants of the vehicle, who were military personnel came down from the vehicle, beat him with the iron butts of their belts and an iron rod found on the side of the road. During trial, the defendants claimed that it was the deceased that first hit the military personnel driving the vehicle. It was further argued that, in the course of manhandling the deceased, an angry mob gathered with dangerous weapons, attacked the officers, who then used the deceased as a human shield, to ward off the crowd at the scene of the crime. However, in his judgement, Justice Buba while faulting the defendants’ claims declared that the assault which led to the death of Mr. Enilari was wrong, unlawful and a gross violation of his right to life. According to Justice Buba, “it was inconceivable that an armed mob would attack military officers for merely apprehending a civilian and likewise incomprehensible that none of the officers sustained any injury from the attack”. Justice Buba said that the failure of the Nigerian Armed Forces to ensure that the deceased was given medical care from the injury inflicted on him was a gross violation of his right to life and as such, his death was as a result of the assault he suffered at the hands of the defendants. The court consequently ordered the defendants to pay N50 million as aggravated damages, jointly and severally to the deceased family. The army was also directed to pay N295,000 as special damages to cover the deceased burial expenses, N35 million for loss and pain caused Enilari’s family owing to the brutal assault inflicted on him and another N250,000 in favour of the plaintiffs.]]>