A Federal High Court sitting in Port
Harcourt, has given the Federal
Government twenty-one days to pay a
mandatory N37.6 billion to Odi community
in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government
Area of Bayelsa State, as compensation for a
military invasion 13 years ago.
It will be recalled that on November 20,
1999 former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo ordered the invasion of Odi community, when a group of people in the community abducted six policemen. The six law enforcement agents were killed despite
entreaties by various social movements,
prompting Obasanjo to issue a 14-day
ultimatum to the government of Bayelsa
State to produce the perpetrators of the crime.
The ensuing military expedition in the
community left hundreds of people dead,
even as all privately-owned properties were
leveled by the soldiers. The perceived
injustice meted out to the small community
was taken to the court of law by various civil
organisations.
Therefore, Justice Lambo Akanbi of the
Federal High Court, Port Harcourt,
Delivering the judgment in a class suit No
FHC/PH/CP/11/2000, described the military
invasion of the community by troops of the
Nigerian Army as genocidal and a gross
violation of the rights of the people of the
community to life and property ownership.
Culled from informationng.com
