Lagos State Judicial Panel of Restitution and Inquiry has awarded N10 million each to two petitioners as compensation over police brutality involving officers of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
One of the petitioners Hannah Olugbodi, a 35-year-old hairdresser, had in November 2020, narrated how she lost her left leg to a stray bullet fired by some men of the now-disbanded police SARS, who were attempting to arrest a young man with tattoos in June 2018, at the Ijeshatedo area of Lagos.
She narrated that the SARS operatives were at one Ogun City Hotel, to demand money to fuel their vehicle when they saw the young man with tattoos among a group of persons watching a football match at the hotel. She said they labelled the young man with a tattoo a Yahoo-Yahoo boy (cyber fraudster).
According to the petitioner, the SARS operatives attempted to arrest the boy but was restricted by other young boys, so they resorted to firearms.
Olugbodi further explained that she was at Ijesha market trying to buy foodstuff for her family when she was hit by a stray bullet.
She said the market women rushed to her aid to get details of her contact address before she passed out.