>
A Federal High Court sitting in Awka, the Anambra State capital, has awarded the sum N52 million in favour of Ifeanyi Ejiofor, the lead counsel for the detained leader of proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
The judgement is coming exactly two years after the invasion of his hometown residence in Oraifite, Anambra State, by security operatives during the burial of his brother.
Delivering judgement in a fundamental right suit filed by Ejiofor, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba held that the security agents grossly violated his fundamental rights and consequently awarded N50 million against the Police, Army and other security agencies, as compensation for the gross violation of his rights.
The court also awarded N2 million as cost for the action still against the Police and Army.
Ejiofor, in a statement on Friday, said his house was on December 2, 2019, invaded during the burial of his late elder brother, Rev. Chukwukpelum Louis Ejiofor, by a team of security agents comprising of the Nigerian Police and Army.
According to him, four persons were killed in his compound, and all the houses within his ancestral home including his brothers’ houses and neighbouring houses were burnt down.
“Justice Dimgba of Court No 2, Federal High Court Awka Judicial Division awarded me the sum of N50 million against the Police and Army and N2 million as cost for the action still against the Police and Army, cumulatively N52 million.
“I instituted a suit for the enforcement of my fundamental rights grossly violated by the said security agents. The Federal High Court in Awka, Anambra State, on Thursday, December 2 ,2021 delivered a well-considered judgement in my favour.
“The judgement may have been delayed, but the fact that the court found that my rights were grossly infringed upon and condemnable, will go a long way to assuage the pains and trauma. I have been passing through over the past two years, on account of that terrible and heart-wrenching experience,” the lawyer said.