The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Enquiry and Restitution for Victims of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS)-related abuses and other matters has awarded a total of N16,250,000 to four victims of police brutality.
Panel Chairman, Justice Doris Okuwobi Rtd, handed out cheques to the petitioners, comprising three women – Tolulope Openiyi, Felicia Opara, and Blessing Esanbor – and a man, Tella Adesanya.
It followed the panel’s rulings in six petitions, four of which were held to be proven against the police.
The remaining two were unsuccessful.
The panel awarded Openiyi N10 million, Esanbor N5 million, Opara N750,000, and Adesanya N500,000.
Following the presentation of the cheques to the petitioners, the panel moved on to the cross-examination of a trauma and orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Babatunde Lawson, from Reddington Hospital.
But the cross-examination was stalled because the counsel to the Lagos State government who was meant to take him through the process was absent.
Thereafter, the panel listened to the testimony of another petitioner, Samuel Ashola, who was at the venue of the Lekki tollgate protest in October 2020.
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