As ENDSARS victims in Anambra continue to ask that the state government implement the compensation recommended for them by a government panel, the State legislature has been urged to ensure amendments into the State’s 2023 Appropriation Bill to accommodate the compensations.
The Anambra Judicial Panel on police brutality, headed by Retired Justice Veronica Ngozi Umeh, on 15th March 2022, submitted its report to the then Governor of the State, Willie Obiano, after receiving over 300 petitions, the highest in the country.
Unfortunately, 8 months after, nothing has been heard of the report which recommended payment of #699.900,000 to 170 petitioners, among other recommendations.
Private investigations on the matter by TNC correspondent revealed that under the restitution and contingency fund for ENDSARS victims aspect, there is zero allocation in the state’s 2023 Draft Estimate, meaning that the Chukwuma Soludo administration does not have any plan for the ENDSARS victims.
Speaking on the development, a social critic, Chima Christian said it is worrisome that the office of the Secretary to the State Government has not issued a white paper on the recommendation of the panel, 8 months after.
According to him, since Soludo ran on the platform of continuity, it is only fitting that he takes up on the ENDSARS matter, where his predecessor left off, especially when the former SSG who received the report of the ENDSARS panel is still the one serving under him.
Chima noted that the implication of not implementing the panel’s recommendation is that people will no longer have confidence in government and may be forced to take justice in their own hands, when next there is injustice.
“It is worrisome that an exalted office as that of the governor instituted the panel and the same government will not harken to the recommendation of a panel it personally handpicked all its members. What an irony?
“We are looking at a situation that will create total lack of confidence in government if this panel’s recommendation is not heeded,” he said.
Bemoaning the non-appropriation of funds for ENDSARS victims in the state’s 2023 budget, Christian advised the State House of Assembly to direct the amendment of the Bill to add the funds for compensation of the victims in the budget.
He said; “Thankfully, the state legislature has not passed the 2023 Appropriation Bill into law. The Bill is still being debated and bilateral budget discussions ongoing.
“The State House of Assembly must stamp its feet and insist that the Bill be amended to add the funds for compensation of the victims in the budget.”
Also speaking, a legal practitioner, who was also a youth representative in the panel, Barr. Henry Chibuike Ugwu recalled how some of them appointed into the panel had come in with excitement, to give their best towards finding closure for the victims of police brutality and killing that were rampant hitherto.
According to him, a major concern was to see that the Police Force is reformed to end unprofessional conducts that abound in the Force.
“When the panel was inaugurated by the former governor, I was particularly excited because Anambra was the cynosure of police brutality. Those that followed the activities of the Police and the SARS especially the office of the SARS at Awkuzu, know that there were uncountable cases of abuses and violation of human rights by the operatives.
“Some of us who were members of the panel, came in to give our best to ensure that the victims get the desired respite.
“But what was even more important was that government takes cogent steps to see how we can commit to meaningful Police reforms. That for me, was the goal of the ENDSARS, that Police should not be what it used to be- unprofessional conduct by operatives on the roads, bribery, shoddy investigations and prosecutions, poor funding of the Police etc,” he said.
He recalled how some members of the panel had resigned along the line, citing lack of confidence in government because it appeared that at some point, what the government was just doing was a charade just to score cheap political points.
He opined; “Now, this dilly-dallying and merry-go-round by functionaries of the government to consummate the report of the panel and pay compensation to the victims, leads one to believe that indeed government was never sincere from day one.”
The implication of not implementing the panel’s report, he said, is that all the efforts put in by the panel, all the money spent and other inputs were all waste, total mismanagement and misappropriation of government funds.
He continued; “It also means that the victims have been put in a worse situation, having had to travel and risk movement from all parts of the country to come and submit memoranda and tell their stories with the hope of getting restitution, all in vain.
“For me, I hope that the new government should take this as a very serious issue because people are fast losing confidence in the ability of the government to protect them and we all know that once that happens, government collapses.
“But what is worse is that the Police has not been reformed and the issues that existed prior to the protest continue to prevail till date. Even the Police appear to have become worse that it was before the ENDSARS.
“So, we are optimistic that government will harken to the report of the panel and even move further to the conversation on how to reform the Police.
“That to me was the major reason for the ENDSARS protest, otherwise, the October 2020 ENDSARS protest and the lives of all those who died would have been a total waste.”
