FCT Panel Says Police Has No Respect For Courts, May Award N575m Compensation For Victims Of Abuses

The Independent Investigative Panel on allegations of human rights violations by the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad and other Units of the Nigeria Police Force (IIP-SARS) says that based on revelations and evidence brought forward during its proceedings, the force had disregarded orders of the courts repeatedly.

The Chairman of the panel, Justice Suleiman Galadima(Retd), who presided over an executive session on petitions filed so far, noted that even the courts had awarded costs against the police for brutalizing Nigerians.

But the panel said that the police was yet to compensate the victims as ordered by the court, which was why some of the petitioners came to the panel to seek justice.

In a statement issued by the National Human Rights Commission’s Deputy Director, Public Affairs, Fatimah Agwai Mohammed, “the executive session considered 20 out of the 44 petitions on non-adherence by the police to court judgments awarding compensations to victims of human rights violations, and decisions were made on each of the petitions otherwise known as judgment debts.”

The Justice Galadima panel said that as for those who earlier got court judgements in their favor, it is considering about 575 million naira compensation for them all.

“The petitions on judgment debts of about 575.8million were considered ranging from the award of the sum of 200million to ₦120,000 of cases bothering on extra-judicial killing, unlawful arrest and detention, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and torture, alleged enforce disappearance , confiscation of property etc,” the statement partly read.

On his part, secretary to the panel Mr. Hillary Ogbonna revealed that a part of the compensation will be disbursed from the “Human Rights Compensation Funds” while the police should also take responsibility when the court makes an order.

Furthermore, Ogbonna held that the panel will order the police to formally apologize to the petitioners who asked for it.

Meanwhile, final decisions on all other cases have not been arrived at.

THE WHISTLER had reported that Ogbonna who spoke in an interview with this website on December 2020, revealed that in 2019, a total of 260 million naira was recommended as compensation to 50 victims of human rights abuses by security agents.