A Borno State High Court has found the police guilty of unlawfully executing Alhaji Baba Fugu Mohammed, the 72-year-old in-law of the late Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf, and awarded N100 million in damages to his family.
The court, sitting in Maiduguri yesterday, also ordered that the late Baba Fugu’s body be exhumed from “wherever” it was buried by authorities and handed over to his family for proper burial.

Babakura Fugu, 40, a schoolteacher teacher and eldest son of the deceased, sued President Umaru Yar’adua, Governor Ali Sheriff and the Inspector General of Police for his father’s alleged execution while he was in police custody on July 31 last year in the wake of the Boko Haram crises.

Justice Mohammed Mustapha said in his judgment that he was satisfied that the police detained and executed Baba Fugu after he reported himself to the police headquarters in Maiduguri when he learnt from family members that he was wanted by the police.

The judge said Baba Fugu’s killing was not only in total disregard of his rights to life as provided by the Constitution but also in disregard of decency, the African Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He therefore ordered the respondents to pay N100 million as damages to Baba Fugu’s family.

Justice Mustapha also granted the prayer that Baba Fugu’s corpse be exhumed from “wherever it is” and given to his family for proper burial, and that the respondents should publicly apologise to the family. The family had told the court that Baba Fugu was buried along with other corpses in a mass burial despite their appeal for its release.

The court also granted an order restraining the respondents from harassing or intimidating the Baba Fugu family.

One of the respondents, state attorney general and commissioner of justice Zanna Malam Gana, who arrived at the court premises shortly after the judgment was delivered, told our correspondent that he would not comment until he studied the judgment.

The police suspected that Baba Fugu was in support of Mohammed Yusuf’s sect because he allegedly gave them a building which served as headquarters of the sect before it was bombed by soldiers during the crises.

His family, however, told the court that their late father, who had 27 children, gave out the hand of one of his daughters in marriage to Yusuf 10 years ago because Yusuf’s father was his childhood friend, and that he also gave him a house long before Yusuf developed the Boko Haram ideology.

When contacted for comments, the police in Abuja yesterday said they were yet to receive the court judgment.

Force Public Relations Officer ACP Emmanuel Ojukwu told Daily Trust by telephone that the police did not receive the court order but will abide by it when they receive it. “We will examine the judgement and make our minds up on what to do,” he added.

Daily Trust

This is what you get when those in leadership break the very laws they are meant to enforce.

Chei, N100 million! Enough money to pursue their terrorist activities.
Expect upraising in the north immediately after d payment.