UK Accused of Avoiding Payment of Compensation to Terror Victims

By Bolaji Adebiyi


The United Kingdom government was at the weekend accused of avoiding compensation payment to victims of terror attacks, as a letter from its Foreign Office to a victim of the November 13, 2015 terror attacks in Paris said  compensation would be stalled until the foreign secretary designates the Paris incident as a terrorist act went viral on the internet.

“The scheme only applies to an incident which the foreign secretary has determined as terrorism designated act. The incident in which you sustained injury has not been so designated,” the Foreign Office said in the letter dated January 7, 2016, signed by Mr. Mohammed of the Special Payments Team and addressed to a victim, Miss Christine Tudhope, who had applied for compensation under the Victims of Overseas Terror Compensation Scheme, 2012.

The letter, which came to light a few weeks after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) queried the compensation paid to the THISDAY Newspapers Group in 2014 for the Boko Haram terrorist attacks on its business premises in Abuja, however, told the victim that the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office had been written about the incident and that she would be contacted once the foreign secretary determined that the Paris incident was an act of terrorism.

The UK government’s refusal to designate the Paris incident in which about 130 persons were killed in almost simultaneous attacks in the city a terror attack, for many analysts, indicates the growing trend by governments to avoid compensation payments for terror attacks that could run into millions of United States dollars.

The UK government’s action, according the analysts, is even more curious having regards to the fact that the Paris incident attracted worldwide condemnation and indignation, with many countries, including Nigeria calling for a unanimous action against terror.
Meanwhile, analysts observed that the policy of compensations for victims of terror attacks has been fairly established not only in the UK but also in the United States and many other countries, including Nigeria.

 In the US, for instance, after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund was created by an Act of Congress. The Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act (49 USC 40101),  was promulgated shortly after 9/11 to compensate the victims of the attack (or their families) in exchange for their agreement not to sue the airline corporations involved. About $7 billion was awarded to 97 per cent of the families; the average payout being $1.8 million.

The UK also recognised, under its 2012 compensation scheme, that victims of the hostage crisis in Algeria in 2013; the kidnap of Setraco employees in Nigeria in 2013; the attack at Westgate Shopping Centre in Kenya in 2013; the attack at the Bardo National Museum in Tunisia in 2015; and the attack at Port El Kantaoui in Tunisia also in 2015 are eligible to compensation claims.
Nigeria under President Goodluck Jonathan had also adopted a general policy to support victims of terror, which was an incipient development in the country.

Following the dastardly activities of the Boko Haram terrorist sect which ravaged the North-eastern part of the country and some other northern states, including Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), President Jonathan on July 15, 2014 inaugurated the Terror Victims Support Fund Committee, headed by Lt-Gen Theophilus Danjuma (rtd.), with Chief Fola Adeola as his deputy to raise funds to support the rehabilitation of the victims of terror.  

The former president on July 31, 2014 led the committee at a fund raiser in Abuja to raise about N80 billion for the fund. He donated N10 billion on behalf of the federal government.
President Muhammadu Buhari, in apparent adoption of this policy, on July 31 directed the Head of Service of the Federation to ensure the immediate payment of the N5billion pledge of the federal government to the fund.

And in furtherance of the support for terror victims policy, Buhari on January 1, 2015 set up another committee to be headed by Gen Danjuma and assisted by business mogul, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, to rehabilitate infrastructure and resettle Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North-east sub-region

The president said all forms of assistance and aid in this respect, generated locally and from foreign countries as promised by the Group of Seven  Industrialised Countries (G7) would be channelled through the committee when inaugurated.

But in spite of this support for terror victims’ policy, the EFCC launched an investigation into the compensation the Jonathan administration paid to the THISDAY Newspapers Group in June 2014 after the gruesome attack on its premises in Abuja by Boko Haram.
In his response to the EFCC which was published widely, the Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of THISDAY Newspapers, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, clarified that the compensation was a just succour for a terror victim.
“All victims of terrorist attack deserve a fair and just compensation. The fact that we have received some remedy should be reason to accelerate compensation for all victims of Boko Haram attacks across Nigeria however big or small. We never wished this upon ourselves.

“The central purpose of government is the security of life and property of all citizens. And the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as other international law instruments and conventions of which Nigeria is a signatory underscores this  and in fact requires that we receive effective remedy and compensation,” he had said in his letter dated December 30, 2015 and addressed to the acting Chairman of the EFCC.