Trending 
A High Court has ordered the Inspector-General of Police and the Commissioner of Police, Osun State Command, to immediately prosecute Police Sergeant Moses Samuel over the 2021 killing of a truck driver, Mallam Kabiru Babai.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Peter Lifu, the court also awarded ₦200 million in damages to the deceased’s widow, Balkisu Babai.
The court ruled that the killing violated Babai’s constitutional right to life as guaranteed under Section 33(1) of the 1999 Constitution and Article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The suit, filed by the widow, named the Police Service Commission, the Inspector-General of Police, the Osun State Commissioner of Police, Sergeant Moses Samuel and the Attorney-General of the Federation as respondents.
According to the court, Babai was repairing a broken-down truck in Osogbo on December 3, 2021, when police officers confronted the occupants of the vehicle.
During the incident, one officer allegedly shot the co-driver in the hand. The deceased reportedly emerged from beneath the truck to question the shooting before Sergeant Samuel allegedly assaulted him with a shovel and the butt of a rifle before fatally shooting him in the chest.
Justice Lifu held that the applicant had established that the deceased’s right to life was unlawfully violated and declared the killing unconstitutional.
The court awarded ₦200 million in compensatory and exemplary damages against the Inspector-General of Police, the Osun State Commissioner of Police and Sergeant Samuel for the unlawful killing and the hardship suffered by the victim’s family.
However, the court declined the request to compel the Attorney-General of the Federation to institute criminal proceedings against the police officer.
The case arose after allegations that although police authorities had indicted the sergeant following the incident, he had not been prosecuted before the suit was filed in 2022.
