Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, says his administration has concluded plans to open a victim’s fund to facilitate the payment of monetary compensation to deserving victims of police brutality and related extrajudicial killings in the state.
Governor Okowa made this known at the inauguration of an eight-man Judicial Panel of Inquiry on police brutality or extrajudicial killings at the Government House, Asaba, the state capital.
The Governor said it is a way of restitution and healing for the countless number of Nigerians particularly youths who have been victims of police brutality, extortion, unlawful detention, and extra-judicial killings.
The eight-man panel of inquiry was a fallout of the National Executive Council chaired by Vice President, Yemi Osinbanjo, where a directive was given to state governors for the immediate establishment of state-based judicial panels of inquiry to receive and investigate complaints of police brutality and extra-judicial killings.
Governor Okowa, while inaugurating the Hon Justice Celestina Ogilisi Rtd led judicial panel with its members cut across the youth, civil society, students, police, and human rights commission, announced that the panel would among other things receive and investigate complaints of police brutality or related extrajudicial killings committed within Delta State with a view to ascertaining their validity or otherwise and to recommend compensation or other remedies appropriate for each case.
With my inauguration of the Judicial Panel of Enquiry on Police Brutality and Extra-Judicial Killings today in Asaba, we have now started the process of bringing restitution and healing for the families and individuals that have suffered under the now-disbanded #SARS. pic.twitter.com/ejqq7wvK9a
— Dr. Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa (@IAOkowa) October 19, 2020
The Governor, who used the occasion to appreciate the youths for showing concern for the ills of the society, further announced the upcoming state special security and human rights committee to be headed by himself that will oversee all tactical units of the police force and three-man human rights public complaint team of three persons that will receive complaints about the police on a regular basis through dedicated phone lines and social media channels.
Justice Ogisi Rtd, on behalf of the panel, promised to be fair and just to all even as she warned against people who might want to use the platform as a tool to settle issues.