Villagers of Tudun Biri in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State have dragged the Federal Government to court, demanding N33 billion for the killing of over 100 of their kinsmen.
The Nigerian Army claimed responsibility for dropping a bomb on Tudun Biri on Sunday night during a Maulud celebration, which killed over 100 people while others sustained injuries.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had ordered immediate investigation into the circumstances that lead to the ugly incident and vowed to punish whoever was found culpable in the bombing.
However, a villager identified as Dalhatu Salihu, on behalf of his kinsmen, through their lawyer, Mukhtar Usman, on December 8, 2023, filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Kaduna, demanding N33 billion as compensation.
The villagers are also demanding an apology to be published in at least three national newspapers.
Among the reliefs sought is “a declaration that the act of striking dead, by way of aerial bombardment of the deceased victims herein while celebrating the Islamic Maulud at their village of Tudun Biri in Igabi Local Government Area on the 3rd day of December 2023 by the personnel under the command and supervision of the 3rd respondent (the Chief of Army Staff) amounts to a violation of the deceased victims’ fundamental rights to life as enshrined in Section 33 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and Article 10(1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification Enforcement) Act (Cap 10) LFN 2010 and hence ultra vires the respondents, illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional.”
The date for the hearing is not yet made known.
