The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday passed for second reading, a bill seeking to compensate victims of the October 2020 EndSARS protest.
The piece of legislation, titled: “A Bill for an Act to Amend the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Act,“ was sponsored by Senator Gershom Bassey.
Senator Bassey in his lead debate confirmed that the bill seeks to provide for the establishment of the EndSARS Victims Compensation Fund.
“Distinguished colleagues, you may recall that as a result of the EndSARS nationwide protests in October 2020.
“Judicial panels of inquiry were constituted to address the demands of protesters and compensation for verified victims of the EndSARS protest.
“The findings of the judicial panels of inquiry and the Senate Joint Committee on EndSARS revealed the killing of protesters, destruction of private and public properties by rampaging hoodlums, who seized and took over the protest vandalizing and looting valuable assets.
“However, the implementation of the recommendation of all the panels and committees regarding compensation has been very discouraging.”
According to him, the victims have been left to continually groan under the pains of injury inflicted by hoodlums during the EndSARS protest.
Senator Bassey said the eventual establishment of the fund and implementation of the recommendation of the judicial panel of inquiry and Senate Joint Committee on EndSARS would certainly bring succour to families of victims of the 2020 EndSARS nationwide protest.
“Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, it is my prayer that you support this amendment bill that seeks to bring hope to the victims of the 2020 EndSARS protest,” he added.
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, therefore, referred the bill to the Committee on Special Duties for further legislative input and report back to plenary in one week.
Background: EndSARS
On Thursday 8 October 2020, nationwide protests on ENDSARS started in Nigeria after weeks of outrage on videos and pictures showing human rights violations by a unit in the Police force, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS)
The slogan #EndSARS called for the disband of the then SARS, the protest took its name from the slogan which started in 2017 as a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #EndSARS to demand the disbanding of the unit by the Nigerian government
After experiencing a revitalisation in October 2020 following more revelations of the abuses of the unit, mass protests occurred throughout major cities in Nigeria, accompanied by outrage on social media.
Consequently, the Nigerian government directed states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to set up independent investigative panels on human rights violations by the defunct SARS to probe police brutality
The FCT panel awarded the sum of N289 million to 74 victims of police brutality.
In December 2021, another panel awarded N146 million as compensation to 27 victims.
Additional Research/Wikipedia/PIAK
