ONE YEAR AFTER: MARTYRS’ FAMILIES OF OCCUPY NIGERIA STILL IN COLD

Families of those who lost their lives during the bloody nationwide protests over the removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government one year after are still counting their losses as no kind of palliatives has come their way.

Standing on the edge of YayaAbatan Street, Ogba, Lagos is the bust of Ademola Abe, the 28-year-old Nigerian who was reportedly gunned down by a trigger-happy police officer during the January 2012 fuel subsidy protest. The bust was constructed in  memory of Abe whom many residents of Ogba now consider as a martyr of the struggle that shook the very foundation of Nigeria nation.

“Goodnight ADEMOLA ABE, 28 years, a patriot brutally murdered by a trigger happy policeman during the fuel subsidy removal crisis on Monday January 9, 2012. Sleep on, beloved,” an epitaph inscribed on the bust, reads. The bust was constructed by Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government, the council under which Abe lost his life.

Abe’s death was perhaps the most controversial of all other deaths recorded across the country while the week-long imbroglio between the Federal Government and Nigerians lasted. Being the first victim of the crisis, Abe’s death served as the pedestal on which opposition and civil society groups hit the government over its “intolerance and unwarranted assaults on defenseless Nigerians.”

Before Abe’s death, the young Nigerian alongside some of his friends had converted YayaAbatan, a neighbouring street to Abe’s residency to a football pitch. An eye witness account has it that the football match was already in full swing when a police patrol vehicle appeared from nowhere and some of the cops began to shoot sporadically.

In the ensuing melee, Abe alongside three other friends, Idara, Samuel Ebujoi and AbubakiriAlimi, who were also gearing up to participate in the match were hit by stray bullets emanating from the shots fired by Superintendent of Police, SegunOlubunmi who was at the time, the Divisional Police Officer, Agege Pen Cinema police station,nut while Ebujoi, Alimi and Idara survived the gory experience, Abe wasn’t that lucky. He died before he could be taken to hospital.

Expectedly, Abe’s death generated spontaneous reactions from the youths in the area and to calm frayed nerves, both state and federal authorities promised to pay compensations and investigate the matter.

Almost one year after the incident, our correpondent was at House No 6 Aderinto Street, the building that once served as Abe’s residence. AdeoluAderinto, a resident in the house and a younger brother to Abe’s friend said even though, the deceased lived in the house, none of his family members was there with him, thereby making it difficult to find a relative who can speak for the family.

“Brother Ademola (Abe) didn’t rent the apartment he was leaving in. He was actually squatting with us, because he got to this place through my elder brother who was his colleague at a tailoring workshop. He was working as a tailor in my mum’s shop while he sometimes used his bike for commercial purposes. When mum became inactive in tailoring due to old age, she requested for an assistant and my brother who happens to be Abe’s friend brought him here to fill mother’s vacuum. None of his family member lives here. I’m aware that his father and mother live in Ilesha OsunState, but I don’t know specifically where in the town,” Aderinto said.

Asked whether he was aware that compensation has been paid to the family, Aderinto said he is not aware, but remembered that few days after the young man was shot dead, some group of people gave an undisclosed sum to the family members and also took a joint photograph with Aderinto’s grandma.

“I’m aware that certain individuals came around to give money to some of his family members who showed up and I remembered that when they came to give the donation, they took joint photograph with Abe’s family members and my grandma. But since his family members left, we have never seen any of them around here again,” Aderinto said.

Elsewhere, the civil society groups involved in the struggle to bring Olubunmi, the police officer who was alleged to have shot the young man to death, vowed to press on until Olubunmi is made to face justice. Speaking on the development, spokesperson of Save Nigeria Group (SNG), the civil coalitions’ umbrella used to promote the subsidy protest in Lagos, Yinka Odumakin said the slow pace of justice notwithstanding, his group will not give up in getting to the root of the matter.

“We have not forgotten the martyrs of the oil subsidy struggle, though the criminal justice administration in Nigeria most times is slow. We will continue to press that justice is served in the cases,”Odumakin said.

Though the police authorities will not be willing to divulge information on the status of Olubunmi, the indicted officer; sources however, said he has been transferred out of the state.

“But even with his transfer, it does not mean he cannot still be summoned to appear before the law court if his attention is needed at any point in time. The rule is that no matter where his new place of work is, he must constantly appear until the trial is over,” one of the sources said.

It would be recalled that barely two months after the gruesome murder of Abe; the state government has set up a coroner inquest chaired by Magistrate Teslim Elias of an Ikeja Magistrate court, to unravel the circumstances surrounding the death of the 28-year-old Nigerian. But after three sittings of the coroner and a summon inviting the accused police officer, the state Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), family of the deceased, civil society organizations, Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Ikeja Branch and individuals to come and testify before it, nothing has been heard of its proceedings again.

The statement of the state Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye, could not be obtained as calls made to his cell phone was neither picked nor was the text message sent to him replied.

Also in Kano, families of those killed are yet to receive compensation. The father of one of the deceased, Suleiman Buba of Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, Malam Buba Dillali said “we have received no compensation either from government or individuals,” he said.

He said as individual, he could not take government to court, because he does not have the power to do so, but said he was aware that there were some organizations that had filed the case before a court. He said the case was still pending.

The teacher of the second victim, Bashir Ahmad, aged 23 who was an almajiri from Zaria, Malam Yunusa Hotoro corroborated what Malam Dillalai has earlier said that no compensation was paid to them, “not a single kobo was given to us as compensation. Though we are aware that a case has been filed on their behalf, we are still waiting for the final judgment.”

The Chairman of the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Isa Inusa Danguguwa said in collaboration with some Civil Society Organizations, had filed a case before a court on behalf of the victims, “we are updating the families of the victims about every development,” he said.

He said since it was the NLC that organized the protest; and as a result of which people were killed, it became necessary that it should stand and fight for their right. “You know all the victims are from poor parents and the fact that the NLC organized the protest, it becomes our responsibility to fight on their behalf,” he noted.

Unlike the situation in Lagos and Kano, 20 year-old  Abdulgafar Muhammad Hadiz who was shot in Kaduna during the protest lived to tell his story. He was shot in the head at a close range around the Old Panteka in the Tudun Wada area of the state capital.

Weekly Trust gathered that the teenager was shot by a policeman when some demonstrators allegedly attempted to forcefully seize the police officer’s gun. He was rushed to the Nigerian Army 44 Reference Hospital, Kaduna from where he was referred to the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH). Abdulgafar said that since the incident happened on 9th January, 2011, he cannot see very clearly with his right eye.

He said he was in the ABUTH for over a month and it was his father, Ibrahim Hadiz, a lecturer with the Department of Education Technology in Kaduna Polytechnic that footed his bills.

When asked if he had received any compensation from the government, he said, he has not gotten any compensation from either the state or federal government with regards to the injury he sustained.