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| Federal High Court |
Family of Oyoma Edewor, an engineer killed by a police sergeant in the FESTAC Town area of Lagos, has lamented the refusal of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to pay the N50m damages awarded to the family by a court.
Justice M.S. Hassan of the Federal High Court, Lagos, had on October 25, 2016, ordered the Inspector-General of Police and the police sergeant that shot the deceased, Godwin Otene, to pay the money to Oyoma’s next of kin, Moses Edewor.
Hassan, in the judgement, said the sum was to assuage the pains of the deceased’s family as well as for the “unbridled impunity of rampant and reckless use of firearms by policemen in Nigeria.”
The judgement, a copy of which was made available to our correspondent, indicated that a 21 per cent interest per annum should be charged on the amount until the final settlement was made by the respondents.
An order was also made against the Attorney-General of the Federation as the chief law officer of the country to advise the IG and Otene on the need to comply with the judgement.
The deceased’s next of kin, Moses, decried what he termed total disregard of the government for the rule of law.
He noted that what the family demanded was justice for the deceased, adding that the sentence of life imprisonment passed on Otene was not adequate.
Moses said, “My brother’s life was cut short by a brutal policeman. He was a civil engineer who was killed in his prime. It was less than two years after we returned from England that the incident happened. In the end, the court awarded the family N50m compensation against the police.
“There is no money that can bring my brother back to life. That is why, to be honest with you, I have not really been pushing for the money because I don’t care about it.
“The most important thing is that justice must be served. The judicial system here has been taken for granted by the government. Everything boils down to corruption because if this had happened in any other part of the world, settlement would have been made and everything resolved by now.
“As I speak, they have been going back and forth and playing my lawyer. I am sad about the way government views the judicial system in this country. We are in a very sad situation.”
Counsel to the family, Allens Agbaka, said he had written several letters to the IG to pay the judgement sum.
He added that the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice had also acknowledged an application he filed, dated May 3, 2018, regarding the matter.
According to him, the AGF assured him that necessary action would be taken on the judgement.
He noted that since then, neither the police nor the AGF had got back to the family.
“The judge asked me to get fiat from the Attorney General of the Federation in view of the fact that the police have a hidden account called Millennium Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“Somebody close to the system assisted me to trace their accounts; they also have enough money in the Police Community Bank at Falomo, Lagos, to liquidate the judgement sum. I swore an affidavit to that effect in the court affirming that they have that money, and it was not denied.
“I don’t know if it was out of panic that the judge asked me to get the fiat from the AGF before I could block those accounts. It was on that basis that I wrote a letter to the AGF, to which he replied that they were looking into the issue with a view to paying the money,” he said.
The Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank Mba, said he was not aware of the judgement or the incident.
He said, “I don’t know anything about this matter; I have not seen or read the judgement. I don’t know the fact of the case and I cannot discuss something I have no knowledge about.”
Justice M.S. Hassan of the Federal High Court, Lagos, had on October 25, 2016, ordered the Inspector-General of Police and the police sergeant that shot the deceased, Godwin Otene, to pay the money to Oyoma’s next of kin, Moses Edewor.
Hassan, in the judgement, said the sum was to assuage the pains of the deceased’s family as well as for the “unbridled impunity of rampant and reckless use of firearms by policemen in Nigeria.”
The judgement, a copy of which was made available to our correspondent, indicated that a 21 per cent interest per annum should be charged on the amount until the final settlement was made by the respondents.
An order was also made against the Attorney-General of the Federation as the chief law officer of the country to advise the IG and Otene on the need to comply with the judgement.
The deceased’s next of kin, Moses, decried what he termed total disregard of the government for the rule of law.
He noted that what the family demanded was justice for the deceased, adding that the sentence of life imprisonment passed on Otene was not adequate.
Moses said, “My brother’s life was cut short by a brutal policeman. He was a civil engineer who was killed in his prime. It was less than two years after we returned from England that the incident happened. In the end, the court awarded the family N50m compensation against the police.
“There is no money that can bring my brother back to life. That is why, to be honest with you, I have not really been pushing for the money because I don’t care about it.
“The most important thing is that justice must be served. The judicial system here has been taken for granted by the government. Everything boils down to corruption because if this had happened in any other part of the world, settlement would have been made and everything resolved by now.
“As I speak, they have been going back and forth and playing my lawyer. I am sad about the way government views the judicial system in this country. We are in a very sad situation.”
Counsel to the family, Allens Agbaka, said he had written several letters to the IG to pay the judgement sum.
He added that the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice had also acknowledged an application he filed, dated May 3, 2018, regarding the matter.
According to him, the AGF assured him that necessary action would be taken on the judgement.
He noted that since then, neither the police nor the AGF had got back to the family.
“The judge asked me to get fiat from the Attorney General of the Federation in view of the fact that the police have a hidden account called Millennium Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“Somebody close to the system assisted me to trace their accounts; they also have enough money in the Police Community Bank at Falomo, Lagos, to liquidate the judgement sum. I swore an affidavit to that effect in the court affirming that they have that money, and it was not denied.
“I don’t know if it was out of panic that the judge asked me to get the fiat from the AGF before I could block those accounts. It was on that basis that I wrote a letter to the AGF, to which he replied that they were looking into the issue with a view to paying the money,” he said.
The Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank Mba, said he was not aware of the judgement or the incident.
He said, “I don’t know anything about this matter; I have not seen or read the judgement. I don’t know the fact of the case and I cannot discuss something I have no knowledge about.”
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