Lagos panel awards N20m to two victims of police brutality

Two victims of police misconduct have received N10 million as compensation from the judicial panel established by the Lagos State Government to probe police brutality.

Adebayo Abayomi — who received on behalf of Kudirat, his late mother — and Hannah Olugbodi were awarded the compensation at the panel’s sitting on Friday.

Doris Okuwobi, chairperson of the panel, presented the cheques to the victims on behalf of the state government.

In November 2020, Olugbodi, a hair stylist, had narrated to the panel how a stray bullet from a police officer had shattered her left leg, and left her in crutches.

According to her, the incident happened in June 2018, while she was on her way to a market in Ijesha. She had alleged that the officers, who were members of the now-defunct special anti-robbery squad (SARS), had raided a hotel and shot sporadically, and she was hit in the process.

On his part, Abayomi had told the panel that on April 4, 2017, his mother was hit when SARS officers visited the Onipanu area of Lagos.

He also accused the police of abandoning his mother’s corpse on the bare floor of a mortuary.

“The DPO told me that he has given out money for embalming at the mortuary and that the next day we should come back for further hearing. So, when I got to the station, I visited the IDH mortuary, I met my mother’s body on the floor, swollen. The police didn’t embalm her as they had told me,” Abayomi had told the panel on December 2, 2020.

While Olugbodi was awarded for the stress she had undergone and to enable her receive medical treatment, the Abayomi family will receive a letter of apology from the police, while the compensation will also cover scholarship for Kudirat’s children.