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EndSARS : Lagos Assembly beam search light, mulls compensation for victims

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4 years ago

November 17, 2020

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In an attempt to facilitate a speedy economic recovery and restoration plan for the victims of the carnage that greeted the EndSARS protest, the Lagos State House of Assembly has commenced a three-day public hearing that will consider cases across the three Senatorial Districts of the state.

This was an offshoot of the 9-man Adhoc-Committee set up by Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa at the plenary held on the 26th of October to unravel the level of destruction of properties and loss of lives with a view to determine compensation for the victims.

Going by the term of reference of the Committee, residents of Lagos Central Senatorial District were attended to at Wednesday’s sitting.

Residents of the the other Lagos West Senatorial District is expected for Thursday session while that of East Senatorial District follows on Friday.

In his speech, the Chairman of the Committee, and Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon. Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni said that the House was marking a giant stride to complement other efforts, saying “We are gathering to display pure indomitable resilience. The character of Lagos is to be undefeatable.

“We have shown this character before, it’s in our gene, we will show it again. Even in the heat of being in the opposition for 16 years, Lagos didn’t falter, instead, we rose and shone. This is another phase, another challenge, another setback, Lagos State shall rise again and shine brighter than ever,” he said.

Eshinlokun-Sanni disclosed the terms of reference of the Committee, which includes; interface with the victims, relevant stakeholders and community leaders and to ascertain the level of destruction.

Others are to determine the level and value of compensation and restitution, where necessary, make recommendations towards preventing future occurrence of such incidents in the state.

He added that the Committee has sent across forms to the victims of the destructions across all the constituencies and that they were accepting submission of the forms, which will be the foundation of the Committee’s consideration.

“We shall be leveraging on the knowledge and experiences of the experts we have invited (such as architects, insurance etcetera) in assessing the details and making decisions on how to assuage the pains of our people,” he said.

While clarifying the difference between the House’s Committee with that of the judicial panel set up by the State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-olu, Hon Eshinlokun-Sanni explained that the latter was meant to unravel the brutality by the police and what transpired during the shootings in Lekki.

He reiterated, however that, “After the Lekki incident, we cannot leave our people, we should find ways and means of mitigating their losses. The primary purpose of the government is security of lives and properties. When such happens, the government must take control and mitigate the suffering of the people.

“The work of our committee is to see how the events after the Lekki shootings affected our people and how we can put them back to work so that they will not suffer more losses. Already, we had COVID-19 Pandemic in the nation and in the state during the year.”

He added that when such incident occurred “there would be a reduction in foreign direct investment into your country and in the state due to the alleged unsafe environment. There would also be capital flight from the nation. What we are trying to do is to bring confidence into our people.,” he stated.

The Deputy Speaker further stated, “Where the people have insurance cover they would be compensated, where they don’t have they would still be compensated.”

A victim, Mr Olugbenga Oresajo from Surulere shopping mall, owners of one of the business enclave torched by hoodlums, urged the Committee to give a timeline that would stipulate when the whole process would lapse.

Another victim Mrs Shade Salami advised that the perpetrators of the carnage should be brought to justice to serve as deterrent to others who might have such sinister motive.

Adeola Alaka from Bode Thomas said the areas that were affected should be barricaded to ward off low lives penetrating there to perpetrate arson, noting that people of questionable characters from Amukoko and Orile environ were the ones responsible for the heinous act.

“We have people asking for our account details, we will like to know how soon the said compensation will come.

“I feel we need a barricade between Orile and Bode Thomas so that Amukoko and Orile won’t have access to us”.

One other victims who also suffered a very huge loss twice this year, Mr. Nkechukwu Agbafo from Shoprite Mall in Surulere noted that his livelihood was not spared during the Nigerian backlash of xenophobic attacks in South Africa and that of EndSars protest, hinted that ensuring security is most paramount now than ever.

According to him he has filled several forms in time past but nothing was forthcoming.

He harped on the need for a Joint force to navigate Bode Thomas and Adeniran Ogunsanya axis, especially a deployment of the OPMESA squad there to shelve further attacks.

Mr Emeka Eze who is also a victim of the looting sprees and other individuals urged the committee to help in ensuring recovery of the lots, noting the Police and Naval Base where some of the recovered loots were cited did not accord them required cooperation.

Mrs Toyin Bakare from STS Textile Surulere noted that a number of the victims were already making efforts at rebuilding their stalls as this marks the second dastard attempt on their means of livelihood.

She added that they won’t tolerate a repeat of the wanton the destruction in their business area again, as it has since been a recurring decimal. ” It must never happen in Lagos State again”.