Eleven months after a court judgment ordering the Federal Government to pay the Odi community in Bayelsa N37.6 billion as compensation for the destruction of the community during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Goodluck Jonathan administration is playing hide and seek, writes Mike Odiegwu, Yenagoa
Pulverised houses, charred roofs and tombs of their loved ones grimly remind them of the sad day. Wounds of devastation have remained fresh in their minds 13 years after troops deployed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo invaded their ancestral land.
It was November 20, 1999. Soldiers raped their women, mowed down hapless able-bodied men, shelled and bombed houses. The lively community was reduced to rubbles by the “marauding beast.”
The people still recalled the fate that befell their late Paramount Ruler, King Efeke Bolou. The federal troops killed him and destroyed his palace. The palace, till today, is yet to be rebuilt.
In climes where the rule of law works, Odi, a community in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State would have been witnessing some degrees of reconstruction and rehabilitation. But Nigeria is a theatre of the absurd; a state where even the authorities, most times, show total disregard to pronouncements of a court of competent jurisdiction.
Therefore, Odi, despite winning a judgment against the Federal Government, may have to wait till eternity for the enforcement of the court order. In fact, the disenchanted people of Odi are patiently waiting on the government to pay the N37.6 billion awarded them by the Federal High Court. Though no amount of compensation would take away their sad memories and restore the dignity of Odi Kingdom, the least the people expect the government to do is to honour the court judgment.A Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, in February, ordered the government to pay N37.6 billion as compensation to victims of the military invasion. The court categorised the damages to include special damages of N17.6 billion and general damages of N20 billion.
It also gave a permanent injunction stopping the government and their agents from attacking Odi again. The suit No.FHC/PH/CP/11/2000 was filed on behalf of the community by Prof. Kobina Keme-Ebi Imananagha, Chief Ndu Gwagha, Chief Shadrack Agadah, Mr. Idoni Ingezi and Mr. Nwaka Echomgbe.
Justice Lambo Akambi delivered the judgment and ordered the government to pay the money in the next 21 days. 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.
Justice Akanbi berated the government for the “brazen violation of the fundamental human rights of the victims to movement, life and to own property and live peacefully in their ancestral home.”
Making reference to various statements by government officials, including that of President Goodluck Jonathan, the National Assembly as well as video evidence of the invasion, the judge described the content of a government counter-affidavit as “worthless”.
Lead counsel to the Odi people, Lucius Nwosu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), referred to comments credited to Jonathan that the soldiers did not kill any member of the gangs accused of killing the policemen but helpless members of the community.
Jonathan said during one of his presidential chats: “It was only old men, women and children, who could not run, that were massacred in that military operation.
“A situation where you turn guns and artillery purchased with taxpayers’ money against the taxpayers, is a call for sober reflection and a matter of serious concern. It calls for atonement for the dead and compensation for the living, for the trauma and loss they have been made to suffer as refugees and loss of their precious homes, loved ones, friends and objects of reverence.”
Throughout the proceeding, the counsel to the Federal Government and the military did not make any formal appearance. The Federal Government’s lawyers argued that they did not get any invitation from the court. Court records show they actually received invitations but refused to honour them.
In the spirit of the judgment, the government was supposed to have paid the money on or before March 13.
But, in its usual show of disdain to court orders, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government started playing to the gallery. Lawyers to the government began to bring spurious applications to the court in a bid to either frustrate the payment or stop it.
Odi has on five occasions when such applications were brought before the lower and higher courts floored the government. Even at the Court of Appeal, the community won.
Lawyers to Odi, Nwosu (SAN), Lawal Rabana (SAN) and Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN), have consistently taken their helpless colleagues in the federal team to the cleaners.
In one of its failed applications for stay of execution, the government had pleaded with the court to grant its application pending the determination of their appeal on the grounds that it might be difficult to recover the money from the community should its appeal on the matter become successful.
However, Lawal urged the court to disregard the plea of the Federal Government insisting that Odi people were not foreigners that could vanish after getting the money.
He said: “You cannot say that because of N37.6 billion, your citizens, in whose land you explore crude oil, should be subjected to suffering. The Federal Government of Nigeria cannot go bankrupt or collapse if the money is released to the Odi community.
“In the event that the appeal succeeds, the Federal Government can get the money back, as these people are not foreigners that will abscond. Odi will continue to remain an integral part of Nigeria forever.”
As expected, the appeal failed. The dilly-dallying game continued and got to a point where the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sponsored an application at the Federal High Court seeking to stop the payment of the money. Still, it failed.
Irked by the delay, a faction of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) had given the government a seven-day ultimatum to pay the money or face series of attacks against its oil installations in the Niger Delta region.
Despite the threats, the government has remained adamant over 10 months after the judgement. There are fears that if the money is not paid before electioneering begins next year ahead of 2015, it may take divine intervention to honour the court ruling.
A member of Odi Council of Chiefs, Chief Bruce Wilson, said the community had resorted to divine intervention through fasting and praying.
“We have declared days of fasting and praying. We don’t know why the government is wasting time. They can’t say they are not ready because the money is there. We are waiting and we know that God will make it happen”, he said.
There are, however, indications that the development may pit the community against their kinsman, President Goodluck Jonathan. The people are not happy that Jonathan had failed to order the enforcement of the judgment.
A member of the Odi Legal Committee and retired Naval Commander, Koku Imanana, said the people of the community within and abroad had been ordered to come back home on December 20 to take a collective stand on the matter.
He lamented the delay in paying the money and said it was unfortunate that “it is happening when someone from the state is the President of the country”. He insisted that Odi would speak against the system.
“If the Federal Government cannot observe the rule of law now that our brother is the President, is it when somebody who is not from the state becomes the President that we will get this money?” He quarried.
He continued: “If a Bayelsa man cannot pay us as the President, who else will become the President and pay us? We are going to take a stand on December 20th. We are not happy.”
Another member of the Odi Council of Chiefs, Chief Michael Okringbo, appealed to the government not to waste further time in paying the money. He observed that government was always slow in obeying judgment awarded against it by the court.
He said: “If the court had prescribed judgment against us, the government would have come down on us with anger. Now that the government is guilty, they are foot-dragging.
“We are begging President Goodluck Jonathan to use his good offices to intervene and enforce this judgment. We are saying this because we know that soon the 2015 politicking will start and our matter may be relegated to the background.”
Also, Prince Tari Bolou, the son of the late king, said Odi people were not happy with the government. He recalled being the first to champion the course for compensation when Obasanjo later visited Odi after the invasion.
“We took the pains to institute a legal action against the government but l feel so bad that the government is wasting time to pay this money after we had won this case. Most of the people are still displaced. Let them pay the money.
“The general Odi is angry including the monarch. President Goodluck Jonathan should use his good offices to intervene and ensure that the money is paid,” he said.
Odi’s invasion was caused by the killing of 12 policemen by armed gangs based in Odi on November 5, 1999. A wide range of estimates have been given for the numbers of civilians killed. Human Rights Watch concluded that “the soldiers must certainly have killed tens of unarmed civilians and that figures of several hundred dead are entirely plausible.” Nnimmo Bassey, former Executive Director of the Environmental Rights Action (ERA), claims that nearly 2500 civilians were killed. The government initially put the death toll at 43, including eight soldiers.
By Jonathan’s admission, the bombardment of Odi did not succeed in curbing militancy in Niger Delta. He said it worsened militancy in the region and attracted international outcry against the Federal Government.
He said if the military action in Odi had stopped militancy, there would have not been any need for the amnesty programme for militants in the Niger Delta initiated by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
He said the bombardment of Odi in retaliation for the killing of 12 policemen in the community only succeeded in killing old men and women, pointing out that no single militant was shot dead in the action.
His words : “After the invasion, I and the governor entered Odi. Ordinarily, the governor and his subordinates would not have moved in at the same time. We entered houses and we saw some dead people. Most of the dead were old men and women, but none of the militants was killed. None. Bombarding Odi was meant to solve the problem, but it never did. If the attack in Odi had solved the problem of militancy in Niger Delta, then the late President Yar’Adua’s government of whom I was privileged to be his deputy, would not come up with the amnesty programme.
That is to tell you that an attack on Odi never solved the problem of militancy, rather it attracted international outcry and many people began to say things rather than the attack on Odi.”
But despite his belief, his government is playing hide and seek over the court order on the N3.7 billion compensation. And the question is: Will the Odi people ever get this money?
