Gov Ugwuanyi Inaugurates Panel On Victims Of #EndSARS Protests

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State will today, at 1pm, inaugurate a nine-member administrative panel of inquiry to investigate the recent loss of lives and grievous bodily injuries to private citizens and security personnel that trailed the #ENDSARS protests. The panel will also look into the related destruction of property of private citizens and security infrastructure in Enugu State.

According to the secretary to the state government (SSG), Prof Simon Uchenna Ortuanya, the panel was constituted by Gov Ugwuanyi ‘pursuant to Executive Order No. 04 of 2020, dated 27th October, 2020, made in the exercise of his powers under Section 4 (1) of the Commission of Inquiry Law Cap. 24 of the Revised Laws of Enugu State 2004’.

Prof Ortuanya said the terms of reference of the panel, which has sixty days to conclude and submit its report to the governor, were ‘to identify private persons and security personnel who lost their lives and recommend compensation that may be paid to their families’, and ‘to identify private persons and security personnel who sustained grievous bodily injuries and recommend compensation that may be paid to them’.

Other terms of reference, according to him, were ‘to determine private property and security infrastructure destroyed, and recommend compensation and/or remedial measures’, and ‘make any recommendations arising out of the evidence, considerations or findings of the administrative panel’.

The panel is headed by Justice Fredrick Obieze, (retd), while the members are Professor Frank Ezugwu (provost, ESUTH College of Medicine); Professor Agozie Ogbodo (dean, Faculty of Law, Godfrey Okoye University); HRH Igwe Emmanuel Ugwu (traditional ruler of Ibagwa Nike); Professor Ngozi Ejionueme (head, Department of Marketing, ESUT); Rev Emmanuel Edeh (CAN chairman in Enugu State); Chief Frank Maluze (chartered estate surveyor and valuer); Comrade Modester Onwuha (vice-president, SUG, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus); Barr Ben Chinedu Oloko (representing the youths), and March Charles Abugu (permanent secretary, Office of the Head of Service), secretary.