A representative of the victims' families detailed in an affidavit filed in support of the suit how the 3 December airstrike snuffed the life out of the deceased persons and injured several people.
Families of 53 deceased victims of the recent military airstrike in Kaduna State have sued the Nigerian government, demanding N33 billion compensation, court documents show.
About 100 people were feared dead in an airstrike carried out by a military aircraft at Tudun Biri village in the Igabi local government area of Kaduna State on 3 December.
The Nigerian government has since owned up to the fatal incident and sent a couple of delegations led by Vice President Kashim Shettima and the Chief of Army Staff Taoreed Lagbaja on a visit to the community.
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But, a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed at the Federal High Court in Kaduna by a representative of the victims' families, listed the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Attorney-General of the Federation, and the Chief of Army Staff as defendants.
The plaintiff, Dalhatu Salihu, in the suit filed on 8 December but seen by PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday, sought an order for the enforcement of the fundamental rights to life of the airstrike victims - Sani Sulaiman, Salima Abdurrahman, Ibrahim Idris,l and 50 others.
Prayers
A lawyer to the plaintiff, Mukhtar Usman, predicated the suit on relevant sections of the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules 2009, the Nigerian constitution and the African Charter on Human and People's Rights.
The suit urged the court to declare that the ''act of striking dead by way of aerial bombardment of the deceased victims,'' who were celebrating an Islamic event at their village by the military ''amounts to an infringement of the deceased victims' fundamental rights to life'' as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution and international legal instruments.
The plaintiff prayed the court to declare the military airstrike ''illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional.''
He asked for a N333 billion compensation against the government ''to be paid to the relations of the deceased victims as exemplary damages for their arbitrary, unlawful and unconstitutional killing.''
In another prayer, the plaintiff urged the court to declare a 10 per cent interest rate per annum from the date of the delivery of the judgement until the judgement sum is fully liquidated.
He equally demanded a public apology from the government over the killings to be published in three national dailies in Nigeria.
How the victims died
In an affidavit filed in support of the suit, the plaintiff, Mr Salihu, detailed how the 3 December airstrike snuffed the life out of the deceased and injured several people.
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He said the Nigerian military had been involved in counter-insurgency operations in the north-eastern region of the country and Kaduna State.
Mr Salihu said the deceased were residents of his ancestral home, Tudun Biri until 3 December ''when they died of bomb dropped by from Nigerian Army aircraft.''
The plaintiff, who said he witnessed the incident, narrated that the deceased, mostly women and children, had gathered in front of Liman Tudun Biri House to perform an annual ritual of celebrating Maulud - the birth of Prophet Muhammad - on the night of 3 December being Sunday.
''We suddenly heard a loud vibrating sound from the Nigerian Army aircraft that routinely conducts military operations with live bombs dropping onto our gathering, hitting people indiscriminately.
''I was able to scamper to safety, escaping the firing of bombs from the army aircraft that was hovering above us,'' Mr Salihu said.
He further said after 15 minutes of trying to rescue the injured and evacuate the dead, a second strike from the military aircraft ''dropped numerous bombs on us, killing many others instantly.''
After an hour of the tragic incident, the deponent said the villagers summoned courage to rescue the victims of the bombing, ''where we discovered that about 93 people had been killed by the bombs dropped from the aircraft belonging to the Nigerian Army.''
Meanwhile, the court papers are said to have been served on all the defendants except the Nigerian Army.
Although the Army has yet to formally respond to the suit, it has admitted its error in the bombing, which it said was based on intelligence suggesting the movement of terrorists around the community.
The suit has not been assigned to a judge for a hearing.
