#EndSARS: Lawyers Back Probe Panels, Say Victims Entitled To Compensation

… Panels Must Uncover Truth For Government Action

Despite attempt by the Nigeria Police Force(NPF) to stop the sitting of various state judicial panels investigating police brutalities, lawyers who spoke THE WHISTLER have expressed support for the continuation of the panels.

The NPF counsel, O.M Atoyebi, on Thursday, told a Federal High Court, Abuja, that governors do not have the constitutional right to probe a federal agency like the police.

But some legal practitioners have expressed contrary views while backing the citizen’s constitutional right to be heard.

Since some of the state panels started sitting in November, victims of police abuses have been coming up to tell their side of the story– a development the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) believes has lawful backing based on the NHRC Act of 2010.

Also, some petitioners have demanded justice and monetary compensation, with some asking about N100million.

Recall that the National Economic Council (NEC) had on October 15, asked state governors to establish the panels ( to be chaired by a retired High Court Judge) to probe the brutalities perpetrated by the scrapped Special Anti-Robbery Squads (SARS) and other security units.

However, lawyers who spoke to THE WHISTLER see the panel of inquiries as a step in the right direction, while adding that there is nothing wrong for a victim of police brutality to ask for remedy, even if it is in monetary terms.

Excerpt of the interviews:

Nuhu Ibrahim ( Covener 1 of the New Nigeria Bar Association)

“Since the matter is before the court of law, my opinion is that we should wait and allow the court to do their work of interpretation; let them state the true position, whether those panel constituted by states are unlawful or lawful.

“In any case, my own view is that every state has the powers to constitute a panel of inquiry that will inquire into the alleged misdoings by the police. The fact that the police are a federal agency, you cannot say that their operations are limited to any territory called the federal government without state territories; so if their activities extends to state it means that every state has the powers to investigate any of their activities which are suspected to be unlawful within the boundaries of that state.

“Nobody is saying that the police cannot arrest or detain a suspect but they have not been doing it professionally and that has been their major problem and that is why they hardly have sympathizers as far as the EndSARS protest is concerned.

“It is naturally in law that when there is an injury there must be a remedy and to a large extent the Nigerian police have been dealing with Nigerian citizens in a manner that depict that they do not have respect for the humanity of the citizens and to that extent anybody that has been subjected to unnecessary detention and intimidation and in many cases extortion by the police, have the right to demand for whatever amount of money because individual freedom cannot be quantified in money terms.”

Akpama Ekwe (An Abuja based lawyer)

“The panel is necessary in the sense that it will help to expose the evil, corruption that is in the system and call people to order. People will realize that secret things will come to limelight. Until people are given the opportunity to say what happened them, you cannot heal their wounds. So the panel of inquiry is a step in a good direction, it will help people to speak out and the whole world is knowing the kind of system we live in and the type of security personnel we have in this country.

“The next thing is, will the government have the political will to implement the recommendation of this panel? That is what we should be talking about now.

“The demand for money cannot stop the required reform; in law, we say where there is a wrong there must be a remedy. If the people have been wronged, you cannot say because you are carrying out reforms or intends to carry out reforms, you cannot compensate them. The reforms has nothing to do with the injury they suffered personally; so the money they are demanding is for injury suffered by the individuals demanding for that money.”

Mr. Bofede ( An Abuja Based Lawyer)

“If the panels are set up to investigate matters and the inquiries are properly set up, they have a right to investigate and come up with their results. If the victims are not satisfied with the panel’s result, it can be appealed.

“One of the ways to compensate somebody is by monetary terms, so that the injuries can be cured and probably if the person has medical issues he has attended to. If you say somebody was victimized, how do you compensate him or her, can you tell him just ordinary sorry?

“Also, it (the panel) is showing to the police that anywhere there is illegality, one must pay for it. The victim has a right to his life, the constitution provides that everyone has a right to himself if his or her constitutional right has been abused.”