The National Economic Council NEC, is to hold a special session to review reports of judicial panels of enquiry set up across Nigeria to investigate the EndSARS protest that took place in the country last year.
This was one of the outcomes of Thursday’s virtual meeting of the NEC presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
The NEC had in October last year, directed governors to set up judicial panels of enquiry to investigate complaints of police brutality or related extrajudicial killings with a view to delivering justice for all victims of the dissolved Special Anti-Robbery Squads.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, Laolu Akande, who briefed the media after the meeting, said that the NEC had started receiving some reports on the judicial panels from the states.
“Today, some of the governors gave reports of the progress that has been made and the vice president also announced that very soon there will be a special session of the NEC that will consider all the reports that are available so far from those judicial panels that were set up to address the concerns of the people coming out from the issue of police brutalities and other concerns.
“So, very soon, a NEC session will review those reports and point to a way forward”, he said.
According to Akande, the NEC will consider these reports and “see how best to move forward” after it had received more of the reports of the judicial panels of enquiry at its next meeting.
“It is essentially about paying compensation for those victims of police brutality and that is what it is going to come down to.
“Possibly by the next meeting of NEC we will have a full idea. Of course, when the council made the resolution, there was a time period that was given.
“The good news is that some of those reports are coming in and some of these judicial panels are concluding their work and steps are being taken on how to bring redress to people who were victims of any form of brutality”, he added.
Strategic Alliance Agreement
Akande also said that the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC, presented a report to the NEC on the issue of the terminated Strategic Alliance Agreement.
He said that idea behind the presentation was to see how to resolve the problem and move forward.
He added that further deliberations on the issue would continue at the next meeting of the NEC.
Account balances
Also at the briefing, Deputy Governor of Bauchi State, Senator Baba Tela, gave updates on the balances in Nigeria’s special accounts as presented to the NEC meeting by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.
According to Tela, as at June 16, 2021, the balance in the Excess Crude Account stood at $16, 850, 975. 92, while the balance in the Stabilization Account stood at N24, 802, 716, 416. 22k.
He said that the balance in the Development of Natural Resources Fund Account as at June 16, 2021 was N28, 215, 689, 963. 31k.
Nneka Ukachukwu
