The Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, has been told to compensate families of affected traders involved in the killings of a protest that erupted on Wednesday in the state.
OsunDailyNG recalls that two traders were killed and several others injured at the Ogbete Main Market resulting from the closure of their shops due to their obedience to the sit-at-home order by Niger Delta agitator Simon Ekpa.
Mbah, on July 5, banned the Monday sit-at-home exercise, saying the routine Monday exercise has affected productivity.
It was a sequel to the governor’s warning that the state government closed down shops that obeyed the sit-at-home order.
An action that stirred up a protest leading to a clash between traders and security operatives in the state.
Reacting to this development, an umbrella body of civic society organisations in Enugu, the Enugu Network of Civil Society Organisations (ENSNet), has knocked the governor for the incident, the group in a statement titled: “Condemnation of the use of force against protesting traders in Enugu State,” said Mbah should open the shops and compensate families of those who did during the protest.
The group described the incident as a show of power and unconstitutional.
While the group shares the same position on the economic implications of the sit-at-home on residents and the people of the region, it, however, condemned the approach taken by the Enugu State Government, which it described as “not the best practice and running counter to democratic norms.”
ENSNet maintained that the action of sealing off the shops of traders who voluntarily decided not to open shops on Mondays is tantamount to ultra vires as the state government under a democratic setting has no such powers to seal or close down shops of traders because no law empowers it to do so.
The organisation, which is the umbrella body of civil society organisations in Enugu State, said that it is preposterous to hear the government linking the ugly recent at the market to the alleged invasion of imported miscreants when the same government told traders that there was adequate security in every part of Enugu metropolis including around Ogbete Main Market and that they should come out on Mondays for business.
Citing constitutional provisions, the group said, “For the avoidance of doubt, those shops were genuinely acquired via the local government, and the right to property as provided in chapter four (4) of the 1999 constitution as amended has been conferred on the owners of those shops and no individual or the Government has the power to take it away from them without following the due process of the law; of which the sealing off of the shops is certainly not part of it.
“That the government of Enugu State should locate the families of the casualties of the protest and pay them the necessary compensations arising from the loss of lives while those that sustained injuries are to be treated and paid necessary compensations as damages sustained in the course of the protest occasioned by the action of the State.
“We call on Amnesty International, National Human Rights Commission, and other relevant Human Right Defenders to intervene in this case and monitor development in Enugu State to avoid the escalation of the use of force and intimidation on the citizens by the government in the course of further enforcement of the ban on sit-at-home order of the state government as well as to ensure that necessary compensations are paid to the victims of the attack on the protesters and their families.
“That the Government of Enugu State should rescind its conditions for unsealing of those shops and unseal the shops in the interest of justice, peace, integrity, and honour and stop using “force” and “intimidation” to secure compliance to the ban as such approaches constitute aberration to democracy. Democracy requires persuasion and dialogue and not intimidation.”
