THE Lagos State Judicial Panel on Restitution for Victims of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Related Abuses and other matters and the October 20, 2020 Lekki Tollgate Shootings has submitted its report to the governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.
Receiving the report Sanwo-Olu said the Lagos State government would implement the panel’s recommendations.
“This will help in proper restitution and compensation for everyone who must have been wronged. I want to assure you, a white paper will be issued. I am going to constitute a committee to review the document between two weeks and bring out a white paper.
“We will ensure that the recommendations that will come out from the white paper will be opened to the public,” Sanwo-Olu said.
The governor noted that the government did not influence the panel’s report
“I have not seen any of the members before the inauguration. The panel has been totally independent and the members have not been asked to do anything to the contrary.”
The panel was set up based on provisions of Section 5 of Tribunals of Inquiry Law of Lagos State (2015).
The law gave the panel powers to summon any person to attend its proceedings to give evidence.
The panel commenced sitting on October 26, 2020 and heard its first case on October 27, 2020.
Two hundred and thirty-five petitions were received between October and the December 2020.
The Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel awarded N410 million as compensation to 71 petitioners.
A reporter with the ICIR
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