Court fixes judgment in alleged killings of 3 IMN members for June 29

The Federal High Court, Abuja on Wednesday fixed June 29 to deliver judgment in the alleged killings of three members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) by the police.

Justice Taiwo Taiwo, who adjourned the matter for judgment after listening to counsel in the suit, however, fixed June 30 for hearing in a suit filed by one Said Haruna, brother to another IMN member alleged to have also been killed by the police.

The inspector general of police is the first respondent while the medical directors of National Hospital, Abuja, and Asokoro District Hospital are both second respondents in the four separate charges.

Suleiman Shehu, Mahdi Musa, Bilyaminu Abubakar Faska and Askari Hassan were alleged to have been killed by agents of the first respondent on July 22, 2019, while on a peaceful protest to demand for the freedom of their Islamic leader, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and his wife at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja.

While the bodies of Suleiman Shehu, Mahdi Musa and Bilyaminu Abubakar Faska were alleged to have been deposited at the National Hospital, Abuja, the body of Askari Hassan was alleged to have been kept in Asokoro District Hospital.

The applicants, who are said to be brothers of the deceased in the suit, are Ibrahim Abdullahi, Ahmad Musa, Yusuf Faska and Said Haruna respectively.

The four applicants, in separate affidavits in support of the originating motions to enforce their fundamental rights filed by their lawyer, Bala Dakum, said they were brothers to the deceased.

They told the court that they wrote the hospital managements through their lawyers for the release of the corpses of their brothers for burial in accordance with Islamic rites, but to no avail.

They prayed the court to declare that “the killings of the deceased on July 22, 2019 by the police was illegal, unlawful, null and void and amounts to gross violation of their fundamental rights to life as enshrined in Section 33(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

At the resumed hearing after counsel to the four applicants, Dakum, presented the motion before Justice Taiwo, Chris Momoh, who appeared for the National Hospital, Abuja, said he did not file any counter -affidavits in respect of the suits by the three applicants because the hospital was only a custodian to the bodies brought by the first respondent.

However, counsel to the Asokoro District Hospital, T. Suleiman, informed the court that a counter- affidavit and written address had been filed in respect of the suit by Said Haruna.

Dakum, who admitted being served with the counter- application filed by Suleiman on the same day (Wednesday), asked the court to adjourn the matter to enable him respond to the motion.

Justice Taiwo, after taking the arguments, fixed June 29 for judgment in the case filed by Abdullahi, Musa and Faska and adjourned Haruna’s suit until June 30 for hearing.