#EndSARS: Lagos panel awards N20m to two victims of police brutality

Two petitioners have been awarded N10 million each as compensation by the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Restitution and Inquiry set up to investigate cases of police brutality especially involving officers of the now-defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad..

The two petitioners, Kudirat Abayomi and Hannah Olugbodi, were awarded the compensation on Friday.

The panel also recommended the prosecution of the erring police officers in the case involving Abayomi.

Apart from the N10 million compensation to the family of Abayomi, who was killed by a police stray bullet in April 2017, scholarships were also awarded for the children of the deceased.

The panel also recommended that a letter of apology be written to the family of the deceased by the police.

Olugbodi, a 35-year-old hairdresser, had in November 2020, narrated how she ended up on a crutch after her left leg was shattered by a stray bullet fired by some men of the disbanded police Special Anti-Robbery Squad who were attempting to arrest a young man with tattoos in June 2018 at the Ijeshatedo area of Lagos.

She said the SARS operatives were at one Ogun City Hotel, to demand money to fuel their vehicle when they saw the young man with tattoos among a group of persons watching a football match at the hotel.

According to the petitioner, the owner of the hotel, one Abu, who usually gave the SARS operatives money, was not around to attend to them.

She said the SARS operatives labelled the young man with tattoos a Yahoo Yahoo boy (cyber fraudster).

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She said an attempt by the SARS operatives to arrest and take the boy with tattoos away was resisted by the other boys, making the SARS operatives resort to firing gunshots.

Olugbodi said she was at Ijesha market trying to buy pepper to prepare food for her children to take to school the following day when she was hit by a stray bullet.

She said the market women rushed towards her and asked her for her address and the name of her husband, which she managed to give before passing out.

She said she was eventually taken to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital where they said there was no bed space and she was given four bags of intravenous fluid right in the bus.

In a petition involving Mrs. Kudirat Adebayo Abayomi, who was killed by a police stray bullet in April 2017, the panel on Friday, recommended the prosecution of the erring police officers.

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