The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Restitution and Inquiry set up to investigate SARS-related abuses has awarded compensations to two victims of police brutality.
Two petitioners, Kudirat Obayomi and Hannah Olugbodi were awarded 10 million naira each as compensation based on the panel’s recommendation.
Olugbodi, a 35-year-old hairdresser, had in November 2020, narrated how she ended up on a crutch after her left leg was shattered by a stray bullet fired by some men of the disbanded police Special Anti-Robbery Squad who were attempting to arrest a young man with tattoos in June 2018 at the Ijeshatedo area of Lagos.
She said the SARS operatives were at one Ogun City Hotel, to demand money to fuel their vehicle when they saw the young man with tattoos among a group of persons watching a football match at the hotel.
According to the petitioner, the owner of the hotel, one Abu, who usually gave the SARS operatives money, was not around to attend to them.
She said the SARS operatives labelled the young man with tattoos a Yahoo Yahoo boy (cyber fraudster).
She said an attempt by the SARS operatives to arrest and take the boy with tattoos away was resisted by the other boys, making the SARS operatives resort to firing gunshots.
Olugbodi said she was at Ijesha market trying to buy pepper to prepare food for her children to take to school the following day when she was hit by a stray bullet.
She said the market women rushed towards her and asked her for her address and the name of her husband, which she managed to give before passing out.
She said she was eventually taken to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital where they said there was no bed space and she was given four bags of intravenous fluid right in the bus.
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