Nigerian Man Blows Hot, Demands N30bn Compensation For Killing Of Son By Police

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According to a report by The PUNCH, the absence of Justice Isa Ndahen of the Federal High Court, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, on Tuesday, stalled the hearing of a N30bn compensation suit filed by a man, Daniel Kokorifa, over the murder of his 17-year-old son, Innocent.

No reason was given for the inability of the court to sit and no adjourned date was fixed for the continuation of the matter.

Daniel, who hails from the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state, is seeking redress for the killing of his son by a convicted policeman, Vincent Koluamaowei, in suit number FHC/YNG/CS/51/2022, through his lawyer, Ebikebuna Aluzu.

The suit listed the Police Service Commission, Inspector-General of Police, Attorney-General of the Federation, among others, as respondents.

Innocent was running an errand for his mother in Yenagoa when he met his untimely death on August 16, 2016, after Koluamaowei, then a corporal, shot and killed him.

A Bayelsa State High Court presided over by Justice Ineikade Eradiri, in 2018, found him guilty of extra-judicial killing and sentenced him to death by hanging.

Eradiri had held that contrary to the position of the police that the deceased was an armed robber who engaged policemen in a gun duel, he was convinced that Innocent was not armed at the time he was murdered.

The convicted Koluamaowei appealed the case at the Appeal Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, but lost.

In the accompanying affidavit sighted by our correspondent, the boy’s father said he and his family had yet to get over the murder.

He said, “My wife, upon seeing the lifeless body of our son, broke down and blamed herself for sending our son on an errand to his early grave.

“I know as a fact that no amount of compensation will bring my son back to life, but if the respondents had shown any sign of remorse over the years, it would go a long way to placate me and my family.”