The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the sum of N135 million payment as compensation to the families of the six traders killed in Garki Abuja by officers of the Nigerian police force in June 2005 during the regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami announced this while briefing State House correspondents after the FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Malami said that a memo was presented by his office on policy relating to human rights which is intended and targeted at consolidating and upscaling the Nigerian observance of the Human Rights posture given what has happened in terms of successes and achievements of Nigeria as it relates to the human right.
He explained: “As you will recall very well, the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has established a record of being the first and only administration in the history of Nigeria that has indeed tolerated, accommodated, and enforced decisions of the Human Rights Commission. And in this respect, taking the Apo Six, taking into consideration, the commission judges the government as being in breach of the human rights of certain individuals popularly referred to as Apo Six, which unfortunate incidents predate the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“And the Human Rights Commission adjudged the government liable to pay about N130 million to the family of the victims of the alleged infractions.
“The government of President Muhammadu Buhari took steps to ensure payment of the N135 million to the Apo Six in compliance with the recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission, thereby giving teeth to the Human Rights Commission in terms of compliance with the recommendation.”
Recall on June 7, 2005, Ifeanyi Ozor, Chinedu Meniru, Augustina Arebu, Anthony Nwokike, Paulinus Ogbonna, and Ekene Isaac Mgbe were driving home from a nightclub when they encountered a team of policemen on patrol at Garki junction in Abuja when the incident occurred.
The minister of justice boasted that the committee for the protection of journalists, which is an international committee had equally adjudged Nigeria, as the only African country last year that has been in full compliance in terms of the protection of the rights of the journalists, taking into consideration that “not a single incidence of death of a journalist has been recorded in Nigeria arising from infractions, relating thereto.”
