The family of a woman, Mrs. Comfort Godwin Sunday,
who was allegedly killed by a policeman, Corporal Museliu Aremu, on September
16, 2015, at Ijegun area of Lagos State, has sued the Attorney-General of the
Federation (AGF) and five others, demanding N1 billion compensation.
The applicants in the suit are her husband, Mr.
Godwin Sunday Udoh; Mary Godwin Sunday Udoh,
Blessing Godwin Sunday Udoh,
Abraham Godwin Sunday Udoh and Elijah Godwin Sunday Udoh, who are children of
the deceased.
Those joined as respondents alongside the AGF in
the suit marked FHC/L/CS/1509/17, are Inspector-General of Police (IG),
Assistant Inspector-General of Police Zone 2; Lagos State Commissioner of
Police, Corporal Museliu Aremu, the alleged killer police, and Police Service
Commission (PSC).
Apart from N1 billion compensation from the
respondents, the deceased family also seek a court declaration that the brutal
murder of the deceased and severe maiming of her husband on September 16, 2015,
by “Corporal Aremu, who intentionally and deliberately shot with an AK-47 rifle
at the police checking point at Ijegun for no just cause is most reckless,
inhumane, barbaric, unlawful and unconstitutional, and thus constitutes a crass
flagrant, colossal and total breach of rights to life and freedom of movement
as enshrined and guaranteed in Section 33, 34, 36, 37 and 41 of the
Constitution of Nigeria, 1999.”
The applicants also seek a court declaration that “the
reckless, inhumane, barbaric, illegal,
unlawful and unconstitutional murder of the deceased, and permanent maiming of
her husband by the alleged killer police, Aremu, in the presence of their
children, on September 16, 2015, (an act which dealt fatal traumatic blow on
the minor), resulting in the recurrent convulsion of the first born and daughter
of the deceased, Mary constitutes unwarranted and unprecedented child abuse, an
absurd and sobering violation of the children's constitutional and statutory
guaranteed rights and a breach of the applicants right to dignity of human
person, right to fair hearing, right to private and family life and right of
movement.”
When the matter came up on Thursday, lawyer to the
applicants, Mrs. Helen Ibeji, leading Omabe Paul, told the court that apart
from the first respondent, other respondents are refused to received service of
the process.
She also told the court that the first respondent,
AGF, just served her with a counter-affidavit, dated November 7, 2017, at the court
on Thursday morning. And that she needed time to respond to the AGF's counter.
AGF's lawyer, Abubakar Musa, confirmed to court
that he just served the applicants' lawyer of his counter gaff in court today,
while blaming the problem in serving on office bureaucracy.
Following the request for adjournment by the applicant’s
lawyer, the court presided over by Justice Hadiza Rabiu-Shagari adjourned the
matter till June 6 for definite hearing.
The applicants, in an affidavit deposed to by the
deceased's husband, Godwin, who is a Pastor in Full Gospel Church at 2, Iyisa
Bello street, Egbeda, stated that after a church programme at about 8.30p.m, he
and members of his family boarded his tricycle and set for their home at 51,
Onitiri street, Abaronje, Ikotun, and that on getting to the police check point
at Ijegun bus stop, the police officer flagged him down which he complied.
He also averred that when he stopped, he and his
late wife waited to hear from the police, and that Aremu requested that he
should give the police N200 but told the police that he did not have N200, adding
that despite his explanation to the team of the policemen at the check point,
one of the officer told them to get into the tricycle and go, but as he was
about starting the ignition, he heard two loud gunshots fired by Aremu, who had
earlier told him that he was not interested in any story other than the N200 he
asked for.
Godwin also stated that one of the bullets fired by
Aremu pierced through right side of his wife's head and hit her left side, and
consequently slumped and died instantly, while the second shot fired by the
same Corporal Aremu, pierced through his shoulder and shattered his right jaw
bones.
The applicant also stated that due to the accident,
his daughter who is currently suffering from convulsion, will need N100 million
for treatment abroad before she can full regain her sound health and invariably
the dignity of her human person, the pride of her womanhood and her full sense
of managing herself.
Godwin also stated that when the incident freshly
happened, the respondents promised to train his four children to the university
level on scholarship basis, but he was shocked when he received a letter from
AGF, wherein the said scholarship was only for their primary school education.
While urging
the court to grant all the reliefs sought, he stated that the respondents would
not be prejudiced if granted.
But among all the respondents, it was the AGF that
filed a counter-affidavit to the applicants' suit.
In the AGF's affidavit deposed to by one Abah
Sunday Abbas, a litigation officer in the Federal Ministry of Justice, it stated
that AGF was at no time informed of the act that led to the institution of the
applicants' suit. And that from the facts of the case as deduced by the
applicants' statement of fact, and affidavit, no cause of action against AGF.
The deponent also stated that AGF was not aware that
the applicants were arrested or shot at, until when the processes of the suit
were served on its office. He added that the second to six respondents are not
employees of AGF, adding that the AGF did not promise or offer scholarship to
the first applicant's children.
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