Zungeru Dam: FG Ordered To Pay N1.5trn Compensation

A Minna High Court IV has ordered the Federal Ministries of Mines and Power to pay N1.5 trillion to Samboro community of Madaka district in Rafi local government area of Niger State as compensation for being displaced for the Zungeru Dam.

Justice Mohammed Adishetu Mohammed in over one hour judgement delivered said that the construction of Zungeru Hydro Power Dam in the Samboro Community has created untold hardship to the people and had denied them their farmland and other sources of economic livelihood.

Alhaji Abubakar Usman the village head of Samboro community and 2,844 other members of the community had on April 27, 2023 approached the court through the counsel Muhammed Ndarani Mohammed (SAN) in a case number NSHC/ KUT/6/2023 demanding for compensation.

Justice Mohammed in his judgement, asserted that the plaintiffs are the original inhabitants of the vast expanse of land at Samboro community, constituting about 7,868 hectares in Rafi local government area of Niger State.

He said, „The subject matter of this case as provided under section 41(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and section 8(c) and (h) of the Hydro Electric Power Producing Areas Development Commission Act, 2010, the court reaffirmed that it is the joint and several acts of the defendants in the construction of Zungeru Dam Project which lead to the continuous flooding and other environmental degradation in Samboro community.”

He affirmed that overtime the situation has occasioned untold hardships and continuous destruction of the sources of livelihood of the plaintiffs, thereby forcefully ejecting them from their ancestral homes.

He said the hardship was caused by irreparable damages to the plaintiffs‘ means of livelihood and therefore pointed out that having regard to the extant 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) ,“ this court  is clothed with the Jurisdictional competence to entertain, hear and determine the reliefs of the plaintiffs for the award of monetary compensation.“

He insisted that the plaintiffs, being the original inhabitants of Samboro Community, in Rafi local government area of Niger State, having suffered as a result of the acts of the defendants are entitled to monetary compensation for the destruction of their environmental and economic livelihood and survival.

Consequently, „an order is hereby given directing  the 1st defendant to pay to the plaintiffs, forthwith, the sum of N1,150,595,047,288 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.

„That an order is hereby given directing the 1st defendant to pay the sum of N100,000,000 as general damages and cost of prosecuting this suit and legal representation and 10 percent post-judgement interest per annum,“ he passed his judgement.