Since the establishment of the Judicial Panels of Inquiry across states, it has been an endless story of agony and pain as victims and families recount experience of police brutality and extrajudicial killings.
At the panel in Rivers State, one man, Nyordeh Sylvanus has narrated how his 3-day old daughter was allegedly killed by stray bullets from operatives of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), on the eve of August 14, 2014.
Delta panel
TNN.ng had earlier reported stories from hearings at some of the panel, last week, there were more gory tales than before as petitioners recounted their grief-stricken ordeal before the panels.
Lamentations at Lagos panel
One of the petitioners that spoke before the panel this week was Hannah Olugbodi, a middle-age hairstylist, who was crippled by the police stray bullet.
Olugbodi, who appeared before the panel on crutches on Saturday, said the awful incident happened on June 6, 2018, when she was going to buy spices for her family dinner at the Ijesha market.
She alleged that the SARS officers were after the boys, who were watching football at the Ogun City hotel, adding that she got hit by the bullet when the officers started shooting sporadically as the boys refused to settle them.
“On one of those days, some boys were watching a football game when SARS arrived and accosted one of the boys who had tattoos.
“When the SARS men couldn’t extort the boys, they started shooting at them as they ran into the Ijesha market and that’s how I was hit,” she narrated.
She later spent six months at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), without any of the police officers coming to visit her.
Olugbodi, who appeared before the panel with a large pack of files full of hospital bills said she wants justice, noting that she had spent all she had to pay for surgery, ye she still can’t walk.
TNN.ng had earlier reported the case of one Alhaji Olatunji Usman who suffered police brutality in Kwara State to the extent that he is now partially blind as he cannot see clearly after being brutalised by the police over his alleged participation in the violence that occurred in Ojoku. As at the time of filing this report no one knows the whereabouts of his wife and children who were said to have run for their dear lives due to intimidation from the police after the alleged escape of Usman from police custody.
Another petitioner, who spoke at the Lagos panel, Adeyemo Rotimi, completely broke down in tears before the panel, as she narrated how her husband lost his life in the hands of police officers.
Rotimi said her husband was a LASTMA official who was shot on November 28, 2018, exactly two years ago.
She said she received a call at exactly 10pm on that day, that her husband had been shot dead by a SARS officer, Olonode Olukunle.
The panel admitted as evidence the photograph the husband soaked in his own blood.
On Tuesday, the panel hearing continues.
SARS bullet killed my 3-day old daughter, man tells Rivers panel
“We woke up in the morning of August 15, 2014, to observe that one of the bullets from SARS operatives who were shooting from the night of August 14, 2014, penetrated my roof and killed my only daughter, a three-day-old baby.
“I picked the bullet on August 15 morning and went to SARS office and but was stopped at the entrance of the office by operatives who ordered me to turn back or join my dead daughter,” Sylvanus narrated.
Another petitioner, Lucky Eze, demanded a compensation of N20million and footing of his medical bills from the Nigeria Police for causing damages to his right ear.
Eze, who was a supervisor in a Filling Station in Ahoada Town, said he started having hearing problem with a hole in his inner ear after he was slapped by policemen who invaded his place of work on January 28, 2018.
He said: “I came here to seek for justice for brutality and wickedness did to me by the Police on January 28, 2018. I have been having hearing problem since then. I have five medical reports from five medical doctors of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) confirming that the slap created a hole in my right ear.
“I am here to seek justice for two reasons; one is to be able to continue with my treatment which I abandoned due to lack of funds. I didn’t deliberately abandon my treatment; I did so because there was no money. Secondly, I am seeking justice for the brutality they meted on me. I ask this panel that I be compensated with the sum of N20milliion.”
The panel headed by Hon. Justice Chukwunenye Uriri (Rtd), however, promised to conclude hearing on all the 171 petitions before it on December 30.
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