A commercial motorcyclist who lost his left leg as a result of a gunshot from the Amotekun security network in Akure, Ondo State, has made an appeal to the governor of the state to pay him the N30 million compensation that a court awarded him on Wednesday.
In a letter his attorney sent to Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu on Thursday, Oluwarotimi Oluwasegun made an appeal.
The governor's office's acknowledgement stamp is dated 30 March.
On Wednesday, the Ondo State High Court in Akure ordered the state government to compensate Mr. Oluwasegun for the disability he suffered in August 2021 as a result of a gunshot from the state's security network agency, codenamed Amotekun.
Omolara Adejumo, the judge, gave Mr. Oluwasegun the money after finding that the Amotekun employees' actions were a serious violation of his fundamental human rights.
The motorcyclist stated in court filings that Amotekun men shot him on August 9, 2021, in the Araromi neighborhood of Akure, the capital of Ondo State. This caused him to lose his left leg about a month later.
Mr. Oluwasegun, a father of two, lost his only means of earning a living: commercial motorcycling.
Why immediate compensation is required Mr. Oluwasegun's attorney, Tope Temokun, stated in a letter to the governor of Ondo State that the amputation of one of his client's leg had thrown his dependents into poverty.
“The amputation of the leg of Our Client, his livelihood, his ability to provide for his family and to send his children to school have all been permanently clogged by reason of his inability to walk on two legs, alongside the necessary debts he and his family members have incurred in order to settle his medical bills.”
Mr. Temokun, who filed the case and won for Mr. Oluwasegun, complained that his client's tragic loss of a limb had made it difficult for him to get food and medicine.
The attorney referred the governor to a previous letter from October 24, 2022, in which they requested "justice and reparation for Oluwasegun Oluwarotimi."
Mr. Oluwasegun fervently requested an immediate intervention to improve his rapidly deteriorating health in a subsequent letter to the Commandant of the Amotekun Corps in Ondo State.
But there was no positive response, prompting the filing of the suit, Mr Temokun explained.
“When it became apparent that there was no more hope for Our Client as a result of the amputation of one of his legs…, Oluwasegun Oluwarotimi had to proceed before the Ondo State High Court to seek redress in this matter.”
Mr. Temokun urged the state government to fulfill its "welfare" obligation to the amputee motorcyclist whose family members have been deprived of a decent living while acknowledging the state government's statutory right to appeal the trial court decision.
The incident in which Mr. Oluwasegun was shot by Amotekun officers was previously reported.
Mr. Oluwasegun claimed that the Amotekun agents attacked him in Akure on August 9, 2021, between the hours of 8 and 9 a.m.
He narrated in court filings that a passenger had just gotten off his motorcycle in a neighborhood in Araromi, Akure when an Amotekun van suddenly swerved toward him by the roadside. As the van came to a stop, the passengers began to shoot into the air.
He claimed that nearby individuals fled as a result of the gunshots, but he stood back.
“I did not run because I presumed the officers were carrying out their lawful duties, and, more so, when I did not do anything incriminating that might warrant me to flee at the sight of Amotekun officers,” he wrote in his supporting affidavit.
Surprised that he did not flee like others, four Amotekun men, Mr Oluwasegun said, “alighted from the van, accosted me, and to my surprise, they started to harass and beat me.”
He said he struggled to understand the situation when one of the Amotekun officers “fired a shot on my leg with the rifle he had tied to his neck.”
The men then dragged him into the back of their van and drove him to the Amotekun Headquarters at Alagbaka, where he was later abandoned, Mr Oluwasegun said.
At their office, according to the claimant, he was abandoned outside, uncared for, until a senior officer came out and directed that he be taken to the outfit’s medical unit.
At the Amotekun’s medical unit, he said, nurses only bandaged the gunshot injury and referred him to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Owo, “for immediate treatment of the leg.”
The Okada rider recounted how the Amotekun men drove him roughly down to Owo, with his fractured thigh “barely hanging to the flesh” for 45 minutes that seemed to him “like 45 years” of pain.
He said he was treated for barely 24 hours when he learnt on Tuesday, 10 August 2021, the day after the incident, that the hospital’s medical staff went on strike.
“This was the end of any meaningful medical attention that the leg got at FMC Owo,” he said.
With no further consideration, the state of the injury declined and the leg became malodorous as it rotted, which prompted the removal.
