Family of murdered taxi driver in Taraba, seeks N100 million compensation

The family of a 40 years old taxi driver, Sanusi Bello, who was allegedly said to have been shot by soldiers in Jalingo main market, have approached the Justice Christopher Awubra panel to seek for a compensation of the sum of N100 million.

In a petition attended to the panel, the family claimed that the life of their eldest brother who they described as the breadwinner of the family, was cut short by the soldiers bullets in November 2012 at 2:00pm at the Jalingo main.

They expressed dismay that no any form of hands of friendship have been extended to them by the soldiers since the incident that the deceased’s 60 years old mother is paralyzed and his three children thrown out of the four walls of the classrooms.

The family who spoke via one of their family member, Tukur Usman, said “some military personnel in an official vehicle shot Sanusi Bello on in-ground basis in his commercial vehicle packed beside the road and died instantly.”

The soldiers as made known by him immediately disappeared into the thin air after “succeeding in killing our innocent brother.”

Armed with various documents to support their petition among which includes a letter of condolence from the then state government to the family and pictures of how the deceased lied in his pool of blood, they lamented that no form of communication have since then been made available to the family.

The family who also observed with dismay that despite “assuring the family that the culprits have been arrested and are facing military discipline ” they lamented that at the moment “the family members are not aware of any action taken against the soldiers ” adding that “no any compensation of damage have been paid to us.”

Also aligning his weight to that of the petitioners the counsel to the family, Emmanuel S Datire, appealed to the panel to come to the family’s aide.

Our correspondent observed that the respondent in the said petition who was the Chief of Army Staff, did not appear before the panel and neither was a legal practitioner sent from the force headquarters to represent him.

The panel led by it chairman, Christopher Awubra, unanimously agreed to adjourned the petition for consideration.