The people of Odi, a sleepy community in Bayelsa State, are protesting the Federal Government’s non-compliance with a Supreme Court judment asking it to pay them for the destruction of their homes, writes Mike Odiegwu, Yenagoa.
Their faces are wrinkled. Old age has indeed caught up with them, like fish in a dragnet. With their faces exuding hardship and their legs showing weariness, nobody expected the old men and women of Odi, the community bombed and shelled in November 1999 by the military under the directive of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo, to engage in activism.
But they were compelled by perceived foot-dragging by the Federal Government in obeying the ruling of a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, which in February 2013 ordered the government to pay N37.6bn as compensation to victims of the military invasion. The court categorised the damages to include special damages of N17.6bn and general damages of N20 billion.
Justice Lambo Akanbi ordered the government to pay the money in 21 days. Justice Akanbi described the attack on the people of Odi as genocidal, reckless, brutish and a gross violation of the rights of the victims to life and to ownership of property.
In the spirits and contents of the judgement, the government was supposed to have paid the money on or before March 13. But the failures of the government to comply with the order has unsettled Odi and opened wounds of the 1999 invasion.
Therefore, on December 27, last year, Odi residents demonstrated their anger against the government, which incidentally, is led by their kinsman, President Goodluck Jonathan. Old men and women barricaded the East-West Road reliving their losses and demonstrating their annoyance.
The women sang dirges to the dead. Their lamentations, rendered in Ijaw language, rented the air. Freely, the mourners especially the women who held bunch of leaves rolled on bare ground twisting and crying in memorial pains of the disaster.
A septuagenarian woman who identified herself simply as Benelaiefa said: “I am an old woman but see what the government has reduced me to. We want the government to hear our cry.
“Let them pay us so that we can recover a little. Government came, bombed our town, killed our children and destroyed our property. It is not fair. The same government has refused to obey court order. It is bad.”
Another septuagenarian, Maria, said: “I lost everything, even my sister died. We are asking our son, President Jonathan, to help us pay this money so that we can recover a little.”
The youths marched from one end of the road to the other singing and reliving their pains to motorists and passengers who were held spell-bound in traffic. In the scorching sun with drops of sweat mixed with tears, the youths overran the busy road.
Some of them carried a mock coffin, a symbol of the bloodshed that accompanied the destruction of their community by the marauding beast. Like undertakers, the youngsters bore the coffin. When the coffin covered with white piece of cloth touched the ground, women threw themselves at it rolling uncontrollably in tears in remembrance of their loved ones cut down in their primes.
Their community leaders, however, ensured that the anger did not snowball into violence. They managed the demonstration and later persuaded the aggrieved protesters to leave the road after about 20 minutes of barricade.
The inscriptions on their numerous placards and banners were striking. One of them “Before it is too late”, reminded people of the title of the controversial letter written by former President Obasanjo to President Jonathan.
Other placards lamented the destruction referring to it as a genocide while some decried the delay in paying the compensation, describing it as an abuse of the rule of law. Still some of the placards called for the intervention of the wife of the President, Dame Patience Jonathan whom they fondly referred to as “Mama Africa”.
They bore messages, such as “Odi has gone through the path of justice”; “FGN obey the court”; “It is time to know if truly there is respect to rule of law in Nigeria”; “The people of Odi are crying for justice”; “Odi are for justice”.
Others were; “20th November, 1999, FG was very unfair to Odi”; “Months after judgement, FGN still adamant to pay, where is the rule of law? Nigeria, the giant of Africa, be exemplary, obey court order”; “Dame Patience, Mama Africa, where are you?”
But the demonstration was not enough. The people retreated to their community and opened a chapter of prayers. In a solemn and sober assembly, they prayed for divine intervention and made supplications against agents of oppression. The cast and bound persons and forces frustrating and delaying the payment of their compensation.
One of the community leaders, Koku Imananagha (retd), narrated the tortuous journey that led to the judgment. He said Odi chose the oath of justice despite proofs that the 1999 incident was a clear case of injustice.
“So, it was a surprise to see such a human right abuse case in this 21st millennium dragging for 14 years. Eventually, on February 19, the Federal High Court Port Harcourt presided over by Justice Lambo Akanbi in a substantive suit awarded Odi community the sum of N37,616,871,000 as compensation for the destruction of Odi to be paid within 21 days.
“Despite the long road to this victory, the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) instead of taking the path of glory to put smiles on the faces of the traumatised people of Odi, chose to take us through further legal battle”, he said.
He reeled out fresh legal roadblocks designed by he government to frustrate the judgement.
He said: “On March 12, the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt still presided over by Justice Lambo Akambi turned down a stay of execution application filed by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and ordered that the judgment sum should be paid without further delay to the law-abiding citizens of Odi.
“Also, on May 14, the Federal Appeal Court in Port Harcourt presided over by Justice Ejembi Eko granted the withdrawal application by the AGF for an out-of-court settlement with Odi for which the AGF did nothing thereafter.
“Consequently, on May 31st, 2013, the Federal High Court Port Harcourt gave a Garnishee Order Nisi compelling the Garnishee, CBN, to pay the judgement creditor, Odi, the sum of N37,616,871,000. The order had a mandatory 17 days life span which gives the Federal Government yet another room to conclude the out-of-court settlement with Odi community. This also failed because of the inaction of the AGF.”
But Imanangha said the Federal High Court made another pronouncement on June 17th, 2013. Quoting Justice Lambo Akambi, he said: “That Garnishee Order Nisi is hereby made absolute directing the Garnishee, CBN, to pay the judgment sum of N37,616,871,000 which sum is judgement debt owed the applicants by the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as epitomised by the judgement debtors”.
He said following the failures of the government to obey these series of orders, Odi had decided to solicit for the interventions of human rights organisations, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), the media and other groups in Nigeria to prevail on the government to comply on the court order.
He, however, warned: “If this appeal we are making to the Federal Government to pay pay Odi does not get the deserved attention, we would have no other choice but to seek help elsewhere outside the shores of this land.”
But in a tearful retrospect, the Chairman of Civil Liberties Organisation, Bayelsa State, Branch, Chief Nengi James, narrated the devastation of the community by the military. He said Odi was overnight turned into a battlefield.
“To carry out this murderous operation, the Nigerian Army assembled arsenals of 27 vehicles loaded with 2000 troops; four Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) mounted with machine guns; three 81mm mortar guns which were used to shell Odi between 2pm on November 20, 1999 and 6pm November 21, 1999.
“Also, two pieces of 105mm Howitzer artillery guns and conventionally equipped machine guns of a combat battalion were involved in the destruction. The invasion of Odi by the military was a mission to wipe out the community from the face of the earth as nothing was spared by tin the community by the invaders. It was like using a sledge hammer to kill a fly,” he said.
James said the human rights community should petition the United Nations with a view to dragging former President Obasanjo to the International Criminal Court of Justice (ICCJ). He asked the government to immediately comply with the contents of the judgement in the spirits of the rule of law to put Odi on the path of recovery.
He said: “This year’s memorial is a moment of sober reflection of the injustice the people of Odi have endured these past years. It is provoking and unacceptable that despite the various landmark judiciary victories recorded by the Odi people against the subversive government of the Nigerian state and it’s agencies, justice has continued to be delayed.
“Instructively, the judgement is a clear vindication of Odi, Gbaramatu, Odioma and other communities in the Ijaw Niger Delta which we’re invaded and destroyed at various points by the military.
“The Ijawland and Odi community and indeed the entire Niger Delta cannot afford to sweep the military attack on Odi under the carpet or forget it in a hurry.
“On the part if the Odi community, I wish to urge that this story of invasion and abiding resilience should become part of our social events and family reviews.
“The story should be told again and again so that even generations unborn will hear the undisputed truth of how those who ought to protect them turned around to be the very ones to attack them. This is very pertinent because justice is justice and what is bad is bad no matter who is involved”.
Also, a retired Federal Permanent Secreatry, Dr. Timiebi Koripamo-Agary, said Obasanjo’s action against Odi betrayed the carrot and stick approach he recommended in his letter to President Goodluck Jonathan. She said Odi had yet to recover from the aftermath of the invasion.
“We have won all our cases and the court had ordered that money should be paid to us. We are not happy with Jonathan because if the court had given judgment, he should have complied with it in the spirits of the rule of law. If they had not reported to Mr. President, we want to inform him through our protest,” she said.
