Villagers sue FG, demand N33bn compensation

The people of Tudun Biri in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State have sued the Federal Government, demanding N33 billion for the killing of no fewer than 100 of their kinsmen.

The PUNCH reports that the Kaduna State Government said the Nigerian Army claimed responsibility for dropping a bomb on Tudun Biri which left no fewer than 100 villagers dead penultimate Sunday.

President Bola Tinubu had ordered an investigation into the circumstances that led to the unfortunate incident and even vowed to punish whoever was found culpable in the error drone bombing of the village.

But a villager identified as Dalhatu Salihu, on behalf of his kinsmen, through their lawyer, Mukhtar Usman, on December 8, 2023, filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Kaduna, demanding the said sum as compensation.

In addition, they are also demanding an apology to be published in at least three national newspapers, saying that the suit was to enforce the fundamental rights of the survivors of the incident.

Among the reliefs sought by the villagers is “a declaration that the act of striking dead, by way of aerial bombardment of the deceased victims herein while celebrating the Islamic Maulud at their village of Tudun Biri in Igabi Local Government Area on the 3rd day of December 2023 by the personnel under the command and supervision of the 3rd respondent (the Chief of Army Staff) amounts to a violation of the deceased victims’ fundamental rights to life as enshrined in Section 33 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and Article 10(1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification Enforcement) Act (Cap 10) LFN 2010 and hence ultra vires the respondents, illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional.”

No date has been fixed for the hearing.

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