BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

ABUJA—The National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, and the Chairman of its  Governing Council, Dr. Chidi Odinkalu, have approached the Federal High Court in Abuja, asking it to vacate the order that stopped the execution of the commission’s verdict on the cold blood massacre of eight squatters at an uncompleted building situated at the Apo legislative quarters.

The commission had at the end of a public hearing it held over the incident which occurred on September 20, 2013, indicted the Nigerian Army and the Department of State Service, DSS, for the murder of the squatters, even as it dismissed the allegation that the victims were members of the Boko Haram sect.

Security agencies had in the wake of the midnight bloodbath that left eight persons dead and eleven others wounded, claimed that it was occupants of the uncompleted building that engaged those that were sent to uncover ammunition that were allegedly buried inside the compound, in a shootout.

It was further alleged that the ammunition were stored by members of the insurgent group with a view to using it to attack the federal capital territory and its suburbs.

However, after due investigation of a joint petition that was brought to it by  a group, the Global Rights Human Rights Law Office and the National Association of Commercial Tricycle and Motorcycle Owners and Riders Association, NATOMORAS, which maintained that most of the deceased were its members, the NHRC, found the security agencies guilty.

Consequently, it awarded damages against the DSS and the Nigerian Army, saying they should pay N10 million to each of the deceased family and N5million to the eleven injured youths.