•Security forces should pay fine or appeal verdict
National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) indictment of the security agents who carried out an operation that led to the death of eight squatters in the Apo district of Abuja in 2013, is a serious matter; it should not be swept under the carpet. We have had too many cases of extra-judicial killings in the country and it is high time we started punishing the culprits.
The eight persons were killed in an uncompleted building in the Apo district on September 20, last year, when security agents, comprising operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) and the army stormed the place, ostensibly to arrest an alleged Boko Haram leader, Suleiman R-Kelly, said to have buried arms in the Apo Cemetery. The SSS was later to say that the eight were killed when suspected Boko Haram members in the building opened fire on the troops, who had no choice than to retaliate in self-defence.
The NHRC however decided to conduct a public hearing into the matter when members of the National Association of Commercial Tricycle and Motorcycle Owners and Riders Association (NATOMORAS) said the slain men were its members and that the attack was unprovoked. A panel of the NHRC, including the chairman of its governing council, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, and the executive secretary, Prof. Bem Angwe, took submissions from parties involved in the matter, including the SSS, the army and NATOMORAS members.
The panel rejected the submission of the security agents that the eight men were killed in self-defence., “They were, therefore, protected, civilian non-combatants, the NHRC said.” It added that “Taking account of all the circumstances in this case, the application of lethal force was disproportionate and the killings of the eight deceased as well as injuries to the eleven survivors were unlawful.”
It is gratifying that the commission was able to see the case to a logical conclusion. There have been too many cases of summary executions by almost all segments of our military personnel as well as the police that never went beyond being reported in the media and we moved on as if such was the norm rather than the exception. Many of such incidents involving especially the police had been attributed to accidental discharge. We cannot continue to condone such wanton killings of innocent Nigerians, especially by those paid to protect them.
For sure, the era of the ‘unknown soldier’ is gone; those who released the shots that killed the Apo eight’ must be fished out. The killings fell short of our expectations from our military, especially in a democratic dispensation. It is therefore not enough to order the Federal Government to pay N135m as compensation to the victims – including N10m for each of the deceased persons, as well as N5m to each of 11 injured survivors; as the commission recommended; the individuals involved must be identified and stripped of their institutional garb. They must be made to account for their actions.
We commend the NHRC for rising to the occasion by conducting a public hearing into the matter in line with its constitutional mandate. We also commend it for making it known that the security agents did not have the right to banish the other squatters who were arrested during the operation, and ‘banished’ from the Federal Capital Territory. “There is no basis in law for confining detainees freed by the respondents to internal banishment,” the commission said. The point must be made that no one, including our military, has the right to kill extra-judicially or be trigger-happy. As things stand, the security agencies should appeal the decision or pay the fines and release the culprits for necessary trials in our law courts.
