Kano, Nigeria — A Nigerian court has ordered police to pay 100 million naira (666,400 dollars) in damages to relatives of a slain Islamic militant leader, officials said Wednesday.
Baba Fugu Mohammed -- father-in-law of Mohammed Yusuf, the slain leader of the Boko Haram sect -- was killed after allegedly surrendering to police in Maiduguri in the aftermath of the sect's rebellion last July in which more than 800 people were killed.
The Boko Haram leader was killed by police shortly after his capture.
Court officials said a state high court in Maiduguri, capital of northeastern Borno State, on Tuesday ordered the police authorities to compensate Baba Fugu's family for the killing.
"Apart from the 100 million naira damages, the court also ordered the police to exhume the body of Baba Fugu Mohammed from wherever it was buried and hand it over to the family for a proper burial in accordance with Islamic rites," court official Bukar Zanna told AFP.
The court also ordered the police to offer a public apology to the family, he said.
The judgement followed a suit filed by Baba Fugu's eldest son, Babakura Fugu, in February against the police and President Umaru Musa Yar'adua for the killing of his father, who was 72.
"We are happy with this judgement which I believe will go a long way in assuaging the pain the family has been going through since the death of our father in the hands of the police," Babakura Fugu, a school teacher, told AFP.
Police believed Baba Fugu provided Yusuf with land on which he built the mosque which became the militant sect's base for its short-lived armed rebellion.
"Our father gave out one of his daughters in marriage to Mohammed Yusuf and the land long before Boko Haram came into existence," Fugu added.