Commission Of Inquiry: Exercise Would Be Wasted If Compensations Are Not Paid – Legal Practitioner
A legal practitioner, Barrister Angus Chukwukah, says there should be payment of compensation to petitioners who appeared before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry who deserve to be compensated for alleged police brutality and violation of fundamental rights.
Speaking on Tuesday during the last day of sitting, the legal practitioner said that government should pay compensation or the exercise would be waste.
Barrister Chukwukah said those to be compensated should include families who lost loved ones and those incapacitated as a result of injury.
He said that compensation should be paid either by the federal government, Nigerian Police or the Rivers State Government if it wants to solve problem.
The legal practitioner said: “I want to call on the government to arrange for compensation to be paid to deserving petitioners either from federal government or from the Nigerian Police. There must be compensation because if it is not so after this commission many people will head to court”.
He said the commission opened up old wounds and people would take legal action to seek redress.
He said he wrote to the state government, asking that compensation be paid to deserving petitioners.
He also said he wrote to the federal government over the issue of payment of compensation.
The legal practitioner said that without payment of compensation it would be “wasted exercise” setting up the commission.
Barrister Chukwukah also said that the matters that came up before the commission were on fundamental rights saying people should be compensated.
He also said there should be remedy where there is wrong.
The legal practitioner said: “This commission has opened a can of worm(s). I’d earlier written to the governor (of Rivers State) and copied Attorney-General of the state and to ask the governor that compensation should be paid. I also wrote to the President, the federal government. So I am calling on the federal government, state government and Police as an institution to see that compensation is paid”.
He said that the state should liaise with the federal government or police on the payment of compensation to lessen the pain of those affected by brutality.
He said the solution to police brutality was training and retraining of police and also amend the country’s Constitution.
Chukwukah also said there should be CCTV cameras installed in police facilities as well as proper monitoring of police personnel across the country.
The Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry, Honourable Justice C.I. Uriri (retd), said in closing remarks on the last day of sitting that he believed that the public would hear about the report of the commission.
He also said the commission attended to all 189 petitions brought before it. However some petitions were struck out.
The commission ended its sitting on Tuesday, January 26.
