#EndSARS: Enugu Panel Demands Appearance Of Petitioners

The newly-inaugurated administrative panel of inquiry to determine the compensation for losses of lives and property resulting from the EndSARS protests in Enugu State has called on those who submitted petitions to it to appear before the panel. The panel made this demand during its inaugural meeting at the state High Court in Enugu.

According to the chairman of the panel, Hon Justice Frederick Obieze (retrd), those expected to lodge complaints before the panel ‘include a victim of the hijacked #EndSARS protest in Enugu State’ and ‘a family member(s) of a victim(s) where the victim is dead, incapacitated by injury of body or mind, outside the jurisdiction of Enugu State or is otherwise unable to appear in person to present his or her grievance or complaint in person’.

He said such person(s) also included ‘an agent, lawyer or other representative of a victim or family member of a victim who shall show apparent authority, either written or otherwise recorded by audio or video giving him or her the authority to act on behalf of such victim or the family of such victim’, and ‘the Nigerian Bar Association or any such public interest group or body’.

The panel consequently announced that hearing for Enugu East Local Government Area would hold from Wednesday, November 25, 2020 to Friday, November 27, Enugu North LGA, Wednesday, December 2, 2020 to Friday, December 4’; while Enugu South LGA was slated for Wednesday, December 9, 2020 to Friday, December 11.

A member of the panel, Prof Frank Ezugwu, said the complaints should be backed up with credible evidence, adding that the complainants must be present in person.