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Ekiti panel recommends payment of N1.5m compensation to six complainants

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The Ekiti State Judicial Panel of Inquiry probing alleged rights violation by operatives of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) has recommended the payment of over N1.5 million as compensation to six complainants.

The Media Adviser to the panel, Mr. Femi Bamisaye, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday in Ado Ekiti.

He said the panel at its resumed sitting which was presided over by the Chairman, Justice Cornileus Akintayo (retd), recommended the payment of N1,535,350 to six petitioners that complained about different forms of injustice and destruction to their properties during the #EndSARS protests in October.

Akintayo, in the recommendations, said from the oral and documentary evidence of the complainants produced through exhibits tendered as well as visits to the locus, the panel was able to establish the facts on each case and made appropriate recommendations

In the case of Insp. Omokhua Benjamin and Unknown Persons, the complainant in his evidence said that on October 20, he was on duty during the #EndSARS’ protest at the Afao police station in Ikere-Ekiti when some youths numbering about 200 shouting #ENDSARS slogans attacked the police station, burnt the station alongside his Golf 3 car valued at N1.4 million.

READ ALSO: Police arrests, parades two minors, four others for alleged arson during EndSARS protests in Ekiti

He added that the hoodlums also stormed the official quarters of the police where he also lost his personal belongings during the mayhem

In its ruling on the matter, the panel recommended N400, 000.00 as compensation for Omokhua’s Golf 3 car and N50,000.00 for the personal properties destroyed at the police station.

However, the panel recommended that the police officer should obtain valid vehicle particulars as condition precedence to his collecting the money and was berated for driving the vehicle for seven years without valid vehicle particulars.

The panel also recommended compensation of N400,000 for Insp. Yakubu Aminu in the case of Insp. Yakubu Aminu vs Unknown Persons.

In his evidence before the panel, Yakubu stated he bought his vehicle for N550,000 and wanted the government to pay him N1.3million to replace it.

After accessing the cost of the vehicle, the panel recommended the sum of N400,000 as compensation for the police inspector.

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