ECOWAS Court Orders Nigerian Government to Pay Eighty-Eight Billion Naira as Damages of Victims of Civil War in the South Eastern Part of Nigeria
The ECOWAS Court of Justice has ordered the Nigerian Government to pay the sum of eighty-eight billion naira as damages for failing to clear land mines and remains of explosives used during the civil war in the South Eastern part of the country.
In a consent judgment delivered by Justice CHIJIOKE NWOKE, the court ordered the Federal Government to commence clearing and evacuation of the civil war remnant within forty-five days.
Hundreds of landmine victims had dragged the Federal Government before the ECOWAS Court in 2012, asking for an order for the removal of remnants of war instruments stockpiled in eleven states of the South East, South-South and North Central regions.
The plaintiffs had alleged that the failure of the government to clear the land mines and abandoned explosives at the civil war sites amounted to negligence and a breach of their fundamental rights.
They had claimed one hundred billion naira as compensatory and general damages from the Federal Government.
