After six months hiatus, the Independent Investigative Panel on human rights violations by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, and other Units of the Nigeria Police Force, stting in Abuja, will reconvene on Monday.
The 11-member panel which is chaired by a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Suleiman Galadima, said it paused further proceedings on 295 petitions that were brought before it, owing to “some logistics challenges”.
It will be recalled that the panel was inaugurated by the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, in 2020, “to give quick access to all Nigerians who have complaints against SARS and the Police to air such grievances and also get quick justice in terms of compensation”.
The NHRC, in a statement that was signed by its Deputy Director, Public Affairs, Fatimah Agwai Mohammed, said the panel would upon its resumption on Monday, listen to final written and oral addresses on eight petitions and adjourn to deliver final report on them.
According to the statement, the panel had within the first four months of its sitting, concluded 55 complaints, while 75 are in progress in different stages.
“Of the 55 concluded cases, 22 were either struck out by the panel or withdrawn by the petitions”, the statement added
