Court Orders UK to Pay £420m Compensation to Families of Slain Nigerian Miners

An Enugu High Court has ordered the British Government to pay £420 million in compensation to families of Nigerian coal miners killed during a colonial-era massacre in 1949 at the Iva Valley coal mine.

The judgment, delivered by Justice Anthony Onovo, awarded £20 million each to the families of 21 miners who were shot dead by colonial police while protesting poor working conditions and wage disparities.

The court held that the miners posed no violent threat at the time of the incident, describing the killings as a gross violation of human rights and a dark chapter in Nigeria’s colonial history.

Justice Onovo stated that the massacre was one of the repressive actions that fuelled Nigeria’s anti-colonial movement, eventually leading to independence in 1960, and ruled that reparations were long overdue.

While the UK Government said it had not been formally notified of the judgment and was not represented in court, the ruling followed a suit filed by human rights activist Mazi Greg Onoh, who listed both the British and Nigerian governments as respondents.