Zungeru Dam: Court Orders FG to Pay N1trn Compensation to Niger Community
Justice Mohammed Mohammed of High Court 4 sitting in Minna, Niger State, has ordered the Federal Ministry of Mines and Power to pay N1.1 trillion as compensation for damages caused to the Samboro community of Madaka district in Rafi Local Government Area due to the construction of the Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Dam in the state.
Giving his ruling on the matter on Monday, the presiding judge explained that the dam’s construction in the Samboro Community has created untold hardship for the people as their farmlands and other economic trees in the area were affected.
Recall that the village head of the affected community, Alh Abubakar Usman and 2,844 other members of the community had, on April 27, 2023, filed the case before the court through their counsel, Muhammed Ndarani Mohammed, and demanded compensation.
He stated that the joint and several acts of the defendants in the construction of the dam project resulted in continuous flooding and erosional confrontations in the Samboro community.
Justice Mohammed insisted: “This has over time, occasioned untold and continuous destruction of the sources of livelihood of the plaintiffs, thereby forcefully ejecting them from their ancestral homes. It has also subjected them to untold and immeasurable hardship as well as causing irreparable damages to the plaintiffs’ means of livelihood.”
According to him, the court has the jurisdictional competence to entertain, hear and determine the reliefs of the plaintiffs for the award of monetary compensation under the provisions of Section 39 of the Land Use Act and Section 44(1a &1b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended.
Justice Mohammed ruled: “An order is hereby given directing the 1st defendant to pay to the plaintiffs, forthwith, the sum of one trillion, one hundred and fifty billion, five hundred and ninety-five million, forty-seven thousand and two hundred and eighty-eight naira (N1,115,595,047,288) as monetary compensation for the destruction of their farmlands, houses, ponds, sabotage to their economic welfare and survival, untold hardship and total annihilation of all their resources of livelihood in Samboro Community in Rafi Local Government area of Niger State.”
The presiding judge further ordered the first defendant to pay the sum of one hundred million naira (N100,000,000) as general damages, and the cost of prosecuting the suit and legal representation and ten per cent post-judgement interest per annum.
