A Lagos-based businessman, Obioma Ogukwe, has sued the Republic of Ghana for the death of his 15-year-old son, Austine Ogukwe, who was allegedly tortured to death on October 15, 2013 in a Ghanaian school.
Counsel for the plaintiff, Mr. Femi Adeoye of Falana & Falana Chambers, filed the suit on February 16, 2014, before the Economic Community of West Africa States’ Court.
The plaintiff is seeking an award of $10m as damages and among other prayers, a declaration that the killing of the boy, who was then a student of Ideal College, Tema in Ghana, was a violation of provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
He is also seeking an order directing the defendant to investigate the killing of the late Austine “by some individuals in the Republic of Ghana through the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice of Ghana.”
The plaintiff claimed that his son’s corpse was taken to the Accra Police morgue with “a ridiculous autopsy” claiming that the late Austine “drowned and died while swimming.”
He claimed that even with numerous torture wounds on the face and body of the corpse, the Ghanaian authorities had refused to order investigation into the alleged killing.
The businessman said he had received a call from Tema Harbour Police Station in Ghana on October 16, 2013, asking him to come to Ghana to identify the body of his late son.
The statement of claim attached to the suit reads in part, “Upon getting to Ghana, the plaintiff was reliably informed that on October 15, 2013 that the late Master Austine Chukwuebuka Ogukwe was asked by his school housemaster to join other students out on road jogging and along the way, the housemaster diverted the students to visit the Tema Sea Shore.
“The housemaster thereafter asked the students to swim, an idea which the late Master Austine Chukwuebuka Ogukwe was said to have rejected (because he did not know how to swim) and that rather he would prefer phone game play.
“The deceased was taken to the Accra Police morgue with a ridiculous autopsy claiming that the late Master Austine Chukwuebuka Ogukwe drowned and died while swimming.” Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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