The family of the 35-year-old man, Solomon Andy, who was killed by a soldier in 2017 has cried out that six years after their son was killed, the Nigerian government has still not released the deceased’s corpse nor paid the N30 million compensation ordered by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court.
Recall Andy was allegedly shot dead by one Abel Ocheme, a soldier attached to Command Secondary School Kaduna, in 2017 while he was shovelling sand from a gutter.
In 2022, SaharaReporters reported that the ECOWAS court sitting in Abuja in a suit filed before it by Andy’s mother, Helen Joshua, who was represented by Gloria Mabeiam Ballason, ordered the Nigerian government who was represented by Maimuna Shiru to pay N30 million as compensation to the family.
Justice Keikura Bangura, who read the ECOWAS Court’s judgment after investigations and court processes, upheld the arguments of Ballason, and declared as unlawful, cruel and degrading the killing and confiscation of Andy’s corpse by the Nigerian Army.
The Court stated the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights, which mandated member states to protect the sanctity and dignity of every life, affirmed that the Federal Government failed to uphold its obligations under Articles 1, 4, 5 and 12.
The Court ordered the Nigerian government to pay N25 million to Helen for the wrongful killing of her son and N5 million for the cost of burial and to immediately release the body of the deceased.
However, with two weeks to make it six years when he was killed, Andy’s family told SaharaReporters that the Nigerian government has neither released the deceased’s corpse as ordered by the ECOWAS court nor paid the awarded compensation.
Andy’s sister, Gift, told SaharaReporters that “Nothing has been done since then. Neither the corpse nor the money has been released. The judgment from the court was the last thing done on the case.”