Nigeria's National Human Rights Commission finds security agents responsible for the unlawful killings of eight civilians in a September raid in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
The Department of State Security had said it killed the men in an attack on a sleeper cell of the Boko Haram terrorist network. It said its agents fired in self-defense after they were attacked.
The commission said today there was no evidence those killed were terrorists, nor that they were armed. Human rights organisations had filed a complaint with the state-funded commission charging the agents on September 20 fired on unarmed artisans sleeping in a half-finished building.
The commission ordered compensation equivalent to USD 60,600 for each person killed and USD 30,300 each for 11 injured survivors. Nigerian security forces are notorious for human rights abuses.