Lagos State Judicial Panel awards N20M to two victims of SARS

Excitement in the air as The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Friday gave a huge cheque of N20M to two victims of SARS. The cheques were given to the two victims yesterday during the meeting. 

Narrating the full story, Instablog9ja wrote:

“The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry, on Friday, gave a cheque of N10m each to two petitioners who fell victim of stray bullets fired by men of the disbanded police Special Anti-Robbery Squad.

One of the compensated victims was a 35-year-old hairdresser, Mrs Hannah Olugbodi, who told the retired Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel that she ended up on a crutch after her left leg was shattered by a stray bullet fired by SARS cops who were attempting to arrest a young man with tattoos in June 2018 in the Ijeshatedo area of Lagos.

Olugbodi, who presented her case before the panel on November 28, 2020, told the panel that she had been rendered incapacitated since the incident happened and pleaded with the panel to help her get justice.

“For two years, I have been at home, doing nothing. The panel should compensate me and my two kids. It is only my husband that is doing everything,” Olugbodi had said.

In a positive response to her plea, the panel presented a N10m cheque to Olugbodi, who was accompanied by her lawyer, Akeem Fadun. The second petitioner, Abayomi Adebayo, who also got a N10m cheque, had last year narrated to the panel how his mother was killed in the Mushin area of Lagos in 2016 by a SARS stray bullet.

The petitioner said the policemen who killed his mother were from Olosan Police Station, adding that the police initially denied responsibility but later admitted and then Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Fatai Owoseni, paid his family a condolence visit.

He said though Owoseni pledged that his family would get justice two years after, nothing had been done. Adebayo specifically pleaded for N10m compensation for his family. The panel, on Friday, granted his N10m request, and in addition awarded scholarship to the children of the deceased.

Furthermore, the panel ordered the prosecution of the policemen responsible for the stray bullet that killed the woman and also asked the police authorities to tender an apology to the family of the deceased.”