Osun Judicial Panel Of Inquiry Winds Down Public Sitting, Says 34 Cases Concluded

…Why I Demanded N50m Compensation – Wife Of Slain Man

…I Withdrew Our Three Kids From Private To Public School, Hawked Breads On Lagos Streets — Petitioner

The Chairman, Osun State Panel of Inquiry on Police Brutality, Human Rights Violations and Related Extra Judiciary Killings, Justice Akin Oladimeji (rtd.) on Friday, disclosed that the panel had concluded all the 34 petitions brought before it.

This is even as a petitioner, Mrs Kafayat Ibitoye bursted into tears while narrating her ordeal since the demise of her husband, late Abdul-Akeem Ibitoye who was allegedly murdered by police officers in 2017.

She said the untimely death of her spouse had made her to become a bread hawker having withdrawn her three kids from a private school to public school.

The mother of three who was weeping profusely spoke while fielding questions from journalists shortly after the adoption of her final written address being presented by her counsel to the panel.

Mrs Kafayat had approached the panel to seek justice on the gruesome killing of her husband who was allegedly killed by police officers in the year 2017 at Erin-Osun, Irepodun Local Government Area of the State.

The widow, who demanded for the sum of N50million naira compensation, said the incident had caused the life of the breadwinner of the family.

According to her, the killing of her spouse had exposed the family to financial ridicule as things are extremely hard for her particularly in her efforts to champion and meeting up to the proper upbringing of her three kids since the departure of her husband.

“It is unfortunate that I find myself in this situation. As was established in the court, my husband was killed unjustly. He was murdered by police who out of overzealousness fired gunshots at him and his elder brother where they went to.

“Since his demise, I have been carrying the financial burdens up and down. I had to withdraw my children from private school to public school when I couldn’t afford the tuition fees.

“Our family was economically stable until his life was suddenly terminated. My husband was a successful businessman. He was into trading. I used to sell wears for both male and female before but when the incident happened, I couldn’t proceed in my business due to lack of fund. I have been hawking breads and indomie noodles on the streets of Lagos since he died and the most painful aspect of it was that his corpse was not released to us from where it was deposited since 2017.

“You won’t be surprised that I have not seen his corpse since he died because all efforts to claim his corpse from the morgue proved abortive until recently that the panel ordered the hospital management and the police authority to release his corpse.
“Hopefully, we are expecting his corpse released today to do the proper burial rites because ordinarily, he ought to have been buried since he died in accordance to his faith as a Muslim.

“So, I am appealing to the panel to prevail on the police and concerned authorities to compensate us with N50million”, she added.

Addressing journalists after the proceedings on Friday, the Chairman of the panel, Justice Akin Oladimeji (rtd.), said the panel had concluded all the 34 cases before it.

He said the panel would after the completion of its report and recommendations; invite all the petitioners with genuine cases to come for compensations.

“We have concluded all the cases before us. As you know, 34 petitions were filed to us and we are winning up today to go and review evidence and submission of counsel before we proceed to make recommendations to the government.

“Out of the 34 petitions, 11 of them were struck out due to incompetence or lack of diligence prosecution. The other 23 cases, parties gave evidence in them, and counsel represented the parties too. Their lawyers made final submissions and we have concluded all the cases.

“We will invite the petitioners after we have presented our recommendations to the government who is solely responsible for the payment of the compensations to give them their compensations.

“As we all know, the recommendations must be in line with the financial capacity of the government, and I can assure you that we are going to make our recommendations to the Governor before the end of April or early May.

“We shall do everything possible to ensure that whoever had been injured get remedy, and that no petitioner shall go unjustified,” he added.