The Judicial Panel of Inquiry on restitution for victims of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS)’s abuses and other matters on Monday submitted a two-volume report on its findings to the Lagos State Government.
It would be recalled that the governor in October 2020 inaugurated a nine-man judicial panel of inquiry and restitution to investigate cases of brutality and human rights violations committed by operatives of the dissolved SARS in Lagos state but following the Lekki Toll Gate incident on October 20, 2020; the terms of reference of the panel was expanded to investigate the alleged shooting of protesters by the Nigerian Army at the toll gate.
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The governor had in October this year assured that his government would make public the report of the panel as well as implement it to the fullest.
Presenting the report to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu at the Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja, the Chairman of the Panel, retired Justice Doris Okuwobi, said that part of the panel’s recommendations include the establishment of a body to take over human rights abuses in Lagos based on the fact that the panel could not hear over 40 petitions submitted to it.
She said, “As much as the panel desired to have taken all petitions, the ones that were not taken by the panel were those that did not comply to our rules, so in this report, we made recommendations for a body to take over human rights abuse cases in Lagos State.”
Justice Okuwobi disclosed that the panel awarded N410 million to 70 victims, noting that 235 petitions were received out of which only 14 were on the alleged Lekki shooting incident.
Responding after receiving the reports, Sanwo-Olu thanked the panel for a job well done, saying they had operated independently.
He immediately constituted a four-man committee to raise a white paper on the report of the panel within two weeks.
“The committee will be headed by the Attorney-General, the Commissioner for Youths and Social Development, the Special Adviser on Works and Infrastructure and the Permanent Secretary, the Cabinet office.
“The four of them will very quickly, look through and bring forward a white paper within the next two weeks that will be considered at the Lagos State Executive Council and would be gazetted as a white paper coming from the panel of inquiry,” he said.
He expressed hope that the government’s decision on the report would bring healing, reconciliation and restitution.
He also made known that a copy of the submitted report would be forwarded to the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja this week.
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