Contrary to the insinuations in some quarters that the Independent Investigation Panel on Allegations of Human Rights Violations by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad and other Units of the Nigerian Police Force (IIP-SARS) has fizzled out, the panel will resume sitting on Monday October 18, 2021.
The panel is now prepared to hear and determine a total of 295 petitions it received in the interest of justice.
A statement by Fatimah Agwai Mohammed the Deputy Director Public Affairs, National Humans Rights Commission( NHRC), said the 11 man panel under the chairmanship Justice Suleiman Galadima (rtd) will listen to final written and oral addresses in eight petitions.
The panel did not sit for about six months following some logistics challenges. In the first four months that it sat the panel handled 55 complaints but left 75 petitions it was hearing at different stages of completion .
It sat last in March this year and had hoped to continue sitting after it declared two weeks Easter break but that did not happen, up until the set date on Monday, due to aforesaid reason.
Fatimah who acts as linkage with the panel confirmed that “of the 55 concluded cases 22 were either struck out by the panel or withdrawn by the petitioners”.
Besides, she disclosed that 33 petitions were ready for the payment of compensations including other legal and administrative remedies in accordance with the relevant laws.
So far the panel has brought hope to some families, survivors and victim of human rights violations by the police, the extend that they were heard and are hopeful that they would be compensated.
The IIP-SARS was set up by the federal government in November 2020 following the “End SARS Protests” which was triggered by nationwide allegations of Police brutality including unlawful detention, extra-judicial killings, torture, enforced disappearance, among others.
A similar panel established by the Commission in 2018 and headed by the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Tony Ojukwu Esq. had earlier submitted its report to the President which led to some of the ongoing reforms in the Nigerian Police like the scrapping of SARS which was allegedly notorious for human rights violations in the country.