Oscarline Onwuemenyi
26 September 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Two lawyers have dragged the Inspector General of Police, Commissioner of Police, Kogi state, and Global Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (GINL) to court, requesting for N1 trillion naira in damages with respect to their involvement in the 2008 Ogaminana killings.
It will be recalled that on the 26th of February 2008, some youths of Ogaminana in Kogi State were killed through a reprisal attack by the Nigerian Police Force, which led to extra-judicial killings and destruction of properties.
The action by the police was reportedly in reaction to demonstration by the youths who claimed they were trying to stop the theft of materials and equipment by GINL officials who were managing the Ajaokuta Steel Company.
The attack led to the killing of 50 citizens, destruction by burning and razing down of over one hundred houses and more than twenty vehicles, and rendering over four thousand (4,000) people homeless.
The lawyers, Barr. Natasha Akpoti and Barr. Suleiman Abdulraheem, alleged that the killings and destruction of property were carried out by the agent/officers of the Inspector-General of Police and the Kogi State Commissioner of Police with the support of and/or in collaboration with Global Steel Holdings Limited and Global Infrastructure Nigeria Limited.
A statement from the lawyers noted that, “Relying on section 33(1), 40, 43, and 46(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Articles 3(2), 4, 11 and 14 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, Barr. Natasha Akpoti and Barr. Suleiman Abdulraheem via suit FHC/ABJ/CS/981/17 on behalf of the murdered Nigerian citizens and those whose properties were destroyed, have instituted legal actions against the Nigerian Police and GINL demanding damages of One Trillion Naira (1,000,000,000,000) for their unlawful, illegal and extra-judicial killings in the Ogaminana massacre.”
