Court Orders Nigerian Army To Pay N50m To Family Of Murdered Businessman

A Federal High Court sitting in Warri, Delta state has ordered the Nigerian Army to pay N50million as damages to the family of a businessman, Otunba Ajayi Oladele who was murdered by some soldiers in 2017.

Wife of the deceased, Mrs Esther Oladele and three children, Olanike, Olamide and Abisola had sued the army before the court over the torture and murder of their breadwinner by some soldiers. Joined in the suit as co-defendants were Lt. Col. T. A. Yakubu and Sergeant Hassan Hassan.

The plaintiffs’ claimed that the soldiers were contracted by a businessman to recover debt allegedly owed by the late Otunba Ajayi.

According to them, the deceased was arrested in Warri, thoroughly beaten and had his spinal cord broken by the soldiers.

The late Oladele died few minutes after the soldiers dropped him on the floor of the emergency room of the Central Hospital, Warri.

Delivering judgment in the suit, Justice Emeka Nwite held that the arrest and detention of late Oladele between May 8 and 12, 2017 was unlawful, unconstitutional and therefore an act of gross violation of the fundamental right to life, personal liberty, human dignity and freedom of movement of the deceased as enshrined in the constitution.

The judge also held that the plaintiffs’ rights to life and therefore good and reasonable comfort of life have been violated by the act of the defendants’ unlawful killing of Oladele who was the breadwinner of their family.

He consequently ordered the Army to pay the plaintiffs N5million as general and exemplary damages for the wrongful death of their breadwinner and for loss of comfort, fatherly love, care and disruption of their family life.