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Ebonyi #EndSARS panel recommends N189 million compensation for victims

The panel recommended sanction against security agencies that were involved in extra-judicial killings.

The Chairman of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry on police brutality, extra-judicial killings and Human Rights Violations in Ebonyi State, Alloy Nwankwo, on Thursday, said the panel had recommended the payment of N189 million to victims of extra-judicial killings in the state.

Mr Nwankwor, a retired judge, disclosed this in an interview with reporters in Abakaliki.

He said the panel in Ebonyi State received a total of 71 petitions, since it was set up on October 20, 2020.

He said of the 71 petitions received by the panel, 51 were determined, while 20 were struck out for want of diligent prosecution.

The chairman added that the security agencies involved in extra-judicial killings and other forms of violation of fundamental human rights, were also recommended for sanctions.

“We recommended sanctions and other forms of punishment for security agencies involved in extrajudicial killings, brutality,” he said.

A pastor in Ebonyi, Ugbala Solomon, during the panel sitting, said the operatives of SARS, the disbanded notorious police unit, of killing two of his church members.

Mr Ugbala told the panel that the SARS operatives had afterward lied that the victims were kidnappers killed during a shoot-out with the police.

“On Saturday, 6th day of June 2020, I was in our church organising a place where people that would come for our programme would stay, when four Jeeps, conveying policemen, came behind and stopped.

“A boy called Nonso came out with a handcuff and pointed to my youth leaders Monday Oshim and Emeka Nwalobu Eze. The police threatened to kill them if they ran. As a result of the threat, they started running, the police gunned them down and carried their corpses and motorcycle to Abakaliki,” the pastor said.

It is unclear, for now, if the pastor’s petition was among those determined by the panel.

The panel, just like the ones in other states across Nigeria, was set up after the 2020 historic #EndSARS nationwide protest.