A Federal High Court in Abuja, on Thursday, awarded a
N500 million in damages against Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi
for violating the fundamental rights of Murtala Ajaka, the
Social Democratic Party (SDP)’s candidate in the Nov. 11
governorship election in the state.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a judgment, also directed Gov. Bello
to tender public apology to Ajaka “for the gross and
unwarranted violation” of his rights.
Justice Ekwo equally made an order directing the security
agencies and their heads, listed as 2nd to 7th respondents,
to provide maximum security and ensure Ajaka’s safety,
including his property, within Abuja, Kogi and Nigeria before,
during and after the governorship poll held Nov. 11.
The judge further made “an order of injunction, restraining
the security agencies from arresting/abducting, detaining
and/or further harassing, intimidating, shooting/threatening
the applicant’s life and properties.”
Recall that Mr Ajaka had, in the originating motion marked:
FHC/ABJ/CS/952/2023 dated and filed on July 11 by S.E.
Aruwa, SAN, sought protection from the court.
The SDP candidate sued Mr Bello; Nigeria Police Force; I-G;
Kogi Commissioner of Police; Department of State Service
(DSS); DSS DG as 1st to 6th respondents, respectively.
The applicant also joined Director of DSS Command in Kogi;
Commandant-General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence
Corps (NSCDC); Chief of Defence Staff; Chief of Army Staff
and Chief of Naval Staff as 7th to 11th respondents in the
case.
He said he firmly believed that as soon as the originating
processes for the enforcement of his fundamental rights
were served on the respondents, they would intensify
efforts, albeit illegally, to force him to Kogi to be killed.
He said prior to this time, he had contested in the Kogi
governorship primary election under the All Progressives
Congress (APC).
Ajaka averred that to dissuade him from contesting the APC
primary, the governor, who had announced his cousin
brother, Alhaji Usman Ododo, as his successor, pointedly
demanded that he stepped down.
“He (Bello) further accompanied this demand with threats to
taking my life on failure of compliance,” he alleged.
The applicant said in view of the foregoing, he sought
audience with the then President, Muhammadu Buhari,
where he intimated him of these threats with a request for
intervention and protection.
“The president, in response, requested that the applicant
make a formal report to his official and relevant security
agencies, which he did,” he alleged.
He further alleged that Bello’s schemes became unwieldy
when he (Ajaka) moved to the SDP and secured the party’s
ticket as its governorship candidate for the Nov. 11 poll.
“That after leaving the APC for the SDP, the applicant was
still being threatened by the overt and covert acts of the 1st
respondent (Bello).

“That the 1st respondent has co-opted the 2nd to 11th
respondents in threatening the right to life, liberty and
association of the applicant,” he alleged.
He alleged that on June 3, he left Abuja to pay courtesy visit
to the Ohimege of Koto at KotonKarifi.
He said no sooner had he departed and was heading to
Lokoja to pay a courtesy call at the palace of the Mai gari of
Lokoja than the vehicle he was travelling in with was hit
with hail of bullets in an unprovoked attack against him and
his supporters.
“In the midst of the confusion, the vehicle the applicant was
travelling in was overtaken by a vehicle with the insignia of
the government blocked the expressway, and then the 1st
respondent (Bello) physically highlighted from the vehicle
while ordering the men of the 2nd and 5th respondents
(police and SSS) to again open fire on the vehicle of the
applicant and his motorcade.
“That several vehicles belonging to the applicant and his
supporters were riddled with bullets and demobilised, two
other vehicles branded with the applicant’s party (Social
Democratic Party) Logo were set ablaze by the men of the
2nd and 5th respondents on the direct order of the 1st
respondent,” he said.
Ajaka, who alleged that the deliberate attempt at
assassinating him was made under the direct supervision of
the governor, urged the court to grant his reliefs in the
interest of justice.
Gov. Bello, in his preliminary objection, sought an order
striking out the suit for want of jurisdiction and another
order setting aside the earlier order of the court made on
July 13 for want of jurisdiction.
Giving eight grounds for the objection, he said Ajaka had
filed the action against him, a sitting governor of Kogi.
He argued that the applicant did not sue him in his official
capacity, as the Attorney-General of Kogi was not a party to
the suit.
Besides, he argued that the alleged breach of Ajaka’s
fundamental right and all facts constituting the breach as
per his affidavit in support of the originating motion
occurred in Kogi, hence, the suit was incompetent, among
others.
The governor also disagreed with Ajaka that he (Ajaka) was
an aspirant in the APC primary poll.
Bello submitted that there was an existing court order
barring Ajaka from participating in the said primary election.
He said he had neither dissuaded the SDP candidate from
contesting the APC governorship primary elections nor did
he at any time pointedly demanded that he stepped down as
he was ineligible to even contest the said primary election.
Bello equally denied issuing any threat against Ajaka to take
his life for failure to comply with anything whatsoever.
The governor, who denied anointing any successor, said
Ododo contested the APC primary poll and won on his own
merit.
He said the 2nd to 11th respondents are all federal agencies
and not under his command and control, thus, he could not
have co-opted them to threaten Ajaka’s right to life, liberty
and association.
He alleged that Ajaka, in company of thugs and armed
militia men, attacked and obstructed his convoy along the
Abuja-Kogi Expressway which prompted officers and men of
the 2nd to 5th respondents to repel the attacks from the
criminals.
Bello said all through the episode, he never alighted from
his vehicle neither did he order any person to open fire on
either Ajaka’s vehicle or any vehicle whatsoever as the
officers of the relevant security agencies attached to his
convoy were charged with his security and carried out their
duties within the ambit of the law.
Delivering the judgment, Justice Ekwo said he found that
none of the governor’s averments in the entire affidavit, was
specific.
“In other words, they are merely general averments.
Furthermore, none of the averments specifically mentions
the incident of 3rd June, 2023 and proffer a defence
thereto,” he said.
He held that Bello’s counter affidavit was so feeble and had
failed to effectively challenge Ajaka’s case.
“It is also the law that affidavit evidence which is not
challenged or controverted howsoever, is deemed admitted
and can be relied upon by a court,” he said.
The judge also said he found that the account of what
transpired on June 3 by the governor’s Aide De Camp (ADC),
DSP Iwanger Ifeoma Akaya, was in conflict with the account
of SP Elvis Aguebor, who was also at the scene.
“It is not hard to see that the 1st respondent was acting
clever when he sent his Aide De Camp to make a report to
the same police that acted in concert with him at the scene
of the shooting, after preventing the applicant (Ajaka) from
entering Lokoja,” he said.
According to him, it is my opinion that it is in the attempt of
the 2nd, 3rd and 4th respondents to make a case to cover
up for the act of the 1st respondent and the officers of the
2nd, 3rd and 4th respondents that has caused the obvious
inconsistencies in their evidence.
He held that none of the respondents’ affidavit evidence
was able to address the incident of June 3, which was the
subject matter of Ajaka’s case.
His words: “It is my finding that the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th,
5th, 6th and 7th respondents violated thr rights of the
applicant as enshrined in Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution
(as amended).
“The case of the applicant succeeds on the merit against
the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th respondents in this
case and I so hold.
“In awarding damages in this case, I will take into account
the trauma of the applicant of being shot at by those whose
statutory duty is to protect the citizens, acting under the
command of the 1st respondent (Bello) who is statutorily
the chief security officer of a state for a cause that is
manifestly unlawful but inhuman.
“I will also take into consideration the physical and mental
anguish of the applicant when he stood in utter helplessness
and watched the 1st respondent using his political might
through the apparatus of the state for security and law
enforcement to shoot and burn down the campaign vehicles
of the applicant’s political party.
“I will further take into account the near-death experience of
the applicant and the mental torture that comes with it,
when the vehicle in which he was, was riddled with bullets
from the guns that ought to have been used to protect him
and other citizens.
“It must be understood that fundamental rights of all
citizens are sacrosanct and unless as authorised by law, any
action by which an unlawful breach thereof is successfully
proved, will be determined to reflect the depth of
condemnation by the court.”
The judge struck out the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th
respondents in the case for having found no evidence
implicating them on the incident of June 3 or any claim
against them.
He declared that the unprovoked shooting at Ajaka, his cars
and his supporters by armed officers of 2nd to 7th
respondents on June 3 was reprehensible and a gross
violation of his right to life and dignity of his human person.
This, he said, is enshrined under Sections 33 and 34 of the
1999 Constitution (as amended) and Articles 4 and 5 of the
African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (Ratification
and Enforcement) Act, Cap. A9 Laws of the Federation,
2004

Yahaya Bello is a mistake Kogi people must correct

But you can't tell us which court n punch or vanguard isn't carry this news how come ?

RiquiPuig:
A Federal High Court in Abuja, on of the Federation,
2004