The Applicants allege that their fundamental rights to be heard, right to dignity, right
to property and right to effective investigation have been violated by the Respondent
through the unjustified demolition of their 3 units detached bungalows, one 6
bedroom flat with a sitting room, one 7 bedroom flat with a sitting room and one 15
bedroom flat with two sitting rooms which contained their household items,
furniture, electronics, clothing, certificates, landed documents, receipts, farm tools,
traditional chieftaincy beads and Regalia, one complete small scale palm oil press
plant, and cash crops wherein all the aforementioned properties were destroyed.
The Respondent on the other hand denied the alleged act of 19th December 2012,
and 12th April 2014, or any other day and states that they would not have embarked
on such an exercise without the co-operation and involvement of the Eze (Traditional
Ruler of the Community) by virtue of traditional ruler’s relevance in the
administration of the State. That none of them nor their agents were at the scene at
any point in time as alleged by the Applicants.
The Respondent further put the Applicants to the strictest proof.
The Respondent further stated that the kidnapping menace had greatly affected their
state. It must be noted that in all these, while the Respondent has not conceded to
any involvement in the demolitions on the other hand they submit that due to the
high level of kidnapping in the state, the Government distributed 100 brand new
Hilux cars to the security personnel for purposes of patrol and surveillance in order
to eradicate the kidnapping menace. And that at some point, properties allegedly
belonging to suspected fraudsters were set ablaze or looted. They referred to the antikidnapping Bill stressing that it provided a death penalty for anyone CONVICTED
of kidnapping or whose premises are used to hold a victim hostage.
We therefore find it difficult to reconcile these two assertions by the Respondent
bearing in mind the evidence that the Respondents agents came to the Applicants
house with 5 Toyota Hilux trucks on the 19th December, 2012, and again in a Hilux
accompanied by a bull dozer on the 12th of April 2014. That the Applicants house
was demolished on an allegation of kidnapping.
In determining whether or not the Applicants have led sufficient evidence in proof
of their assertions, recourse has to be made to the facts of the case along-side the
international instruments upon which the application is premised.
The court recalls that the right to be heard, right to dignity, right to property and the
right to effective investigation are all fundamental rights guaranteed under the
African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights (ICCPR) and other international instruments with similar
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