The Court of Appeal has upheld the judgment of the Ondo State High Court which ordered the Ondo State Government to pay N30 million in damages to a commercial motorcyclist, Oluwasegun Oluwarotimi over his shooting by operatives of the South West Security Network, popularly known as Amotekun.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports the lower court ordered the payment to the cyclist on March 29, 2023 after he was shot in the leg.
The counsel to Oluwarotimi, Adedotun Adegoroye, who appeared with Ayo Akinnawonu, representing the Tope Temokun Chambers, had earlier challenged the competency of the appeal by filing notice a preliminary objection against it.
The three-member panel of judges, headed by Justice Oyebisi Omoleye, agreed that the notice of appeal filed by the state government was incompetent.
The judges, therefore, struck out the appeal and awarded the sum of N250,000 against the Ondo State Government as a cost.
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NAN recalls that Justice Omolara Adejumo of the Ondo State High Court in his judgment, held that the illegal firing constituted a violation of the right to dignity of the applicant.
The court had condemned in the strongest terms the illegal shooting of the victim in the leg that led to amputation and now left him with crutches.
Adejumo added that the shooting, which led to the amputation of the applicant’s leg, was a flagrant violation of his dignity, sheer victimisation and dehumanisation.
She added that the said amount should be paid by the two respondents for exemplary and general damages to the applicant in order to cater for his physical and emotional injuries.
According to her, the officers of the corps acted in flagrant abuse of power.
She held: “The illegal shooting at Araromi Street on August 9, 2021 in Akure by the Amotekun was a violation of the applicant’s human rights.”
The respondent’s counsel at the Appeal Court told the court that the Tope Temokun Chambers had written to the Office of the State Governor notifying the office of the lower’s court judgment and appealed for compliance with the said judgment.
He added that another letter was written to the Office of the Attorney-General of Ondo State, appealing to the Attorney-General of the State to advise the state government to comply with the Court’s judgment.
He said: “The letters stipulated that it was against public policy to use state resources to prosecute an appeal against a vulnerable citizen who is now an amputee, after the government agency shot him in the leg.”
The counsel said that the state government did not reply to the two letters.
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