Court orders police to pay injured fuel subsidy protesters N4m

A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos State,  on Friday, ordered  the police to pay the sum of N4 million as compensation to four protesters, who were shot by the former Divisional Police Officer of Pen Cinema Police Station, Agege, Lagos, Mr. Segun Fabunmi, during January 2012 protest against fuel subsidy removal.
Justice Bola Bola Okikiolu-Ighile in her judgment held the police and Fabunmi liable for “recklessly shooting and inflicting bodily injury” on the applicants.
The court also ordered that the police should apologise to the applicants on The PUNCH newspaper and any other national daily.
The four applicants were said to have been injured while one other protester, Adedamola Daramola, died instantly.



The injured applicants are Egbuzor Samuel (24), Alimi Abubakar (41), Joy Monday (21) and Chibuzo Udo (28) and the suit dated March 13, 2012, was instituted on their behalf by the Lagos State Office of the Public Defender.
The policeman was accused of allegedly shooting at the protesters at about 9:30am on January 9, 2012  in Yaya-Abatan Junction, Agege, Lagos, during the protest.
Justice Okikiolu-Ighile held in her judgment that the shooting violated the applicants’ constitutional rights to freedom of movement and human dignity and exonerated the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, who was joined as a respondent in the suit.
According to her, the police and Fabunmi “wilfully and deliberately refused to participate in the proceedings,” thereby rendering all the allegations of the applicants against them unchallenged.”