An Enugu State High Court has ruled that the British Government must pay £420 million to the families of 21 coal miners who lost their lives during the Iva Valley massacre in 1949.
In a judgment delivered on Thursday by Justice A.O. Onovo, it was ordered that £20 million be awarded to each victim's family, which the judge described as redress for unlawful extrajudicial killings carried out by British colonial officials.
The legal action, known as Suit No E 909 2024, was initiated by human rights advocate Mazi Greg N. Onoh, who sought accountability and a formal apology from the British Government for the killings at the Iva Valley coal mines on November 18, 1949.
The miners, who were protesting against exploitative work conditions, racial wage discrepancies, and unpaid wages, were met with lethal force from colonial police, resulting in the deaths of 21 individuals and injuries to 51 others.
Justice Onovo stated, "The defenseless coal miners were requesting better working conditions; they were not engaging in violent protests against authorities yet were shot and killed."
He ordered that “the 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th respondents should pay £20 million per victim, culminating in a total of £420 million, as a necessary remedy and compensation for infringing upon the right to life.”
Additionally, the judge established that the awarded compensation would incur a post-judgment interest rate of 10 percent annually until it is fully settled, although claims for both pre-judgment interest and punitive damages were denied.
Moreover, Justice Onovo instructed the British Government to issue “unqualified written apologies to the victims’ families through their legal representatives,” to be publicly published in major newspapers in Nigeria, including Daily Sun, Daily Independent, and The Punch, alongside three prominent newspapers in the UK within a timeframe of 60 days.
He mandated that the total compensation should be paid within 90 days following the ruling.
The defendants in the case included the British Government, the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, the Nigerian Federal Government, the Attorney General of the Federation, and the Government of the UK, though no representatives appeared for the British respondents during the proceedings.
Justice Onovo dismissed any claims of sovereign immunity, asserting that significant historical injustices are still subject to redress under Nigeria's Constitution.
“The argument presented by the representative of the Federal Government, which claimed that Nigeria was under colonial governance at the time of the killings, is hereby dismissed,” he remarked.
He also criticized the Nigerian Government for its failure to seek justice over the decades, labeling its inaction as a neglect of constitutional responsibilities. He instructed the Federal Government to engage in diplomatic discussions with British authorities within 60 days.
In response to the ruling, the applicant's counsel, Prof. Yemi Akinseye George SAN, called the verdict a historic development.
“This ruling signifies a pivotal step towards achieving accountability and justice for violations committed during the colonial period, reinforcing that the right to life surpasses temporal and geographic boundaries,” he stated.
The court referred to global precedents, such as the UK’s Mau Mau compensation settlement, in underlining the obligation to provide reparations for serious human rights violations.
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