Lagos Assembly begins 3-day public hearing for EndSARS victims

The Lagos State House of Assembly has met with some EndSARS victims from the Lagos Central Senatorial district to determine the level of compensation for the victims.

The Deputy Speaker, Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni, made this known during a three-day public hearing on the victims of the aftermath of the EndSARS protest in Lagos.

Recall that the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, had on Oct. 26, constituted a nine-man Ad Hoc committee headed by Eshinlokun-Sanni.

The committee was to investigate the level of destruction of property and loss of lives with a view to determining compensation for the victims.

The Wednesday’s public hearing was attended by victims in the Lagos Central Senatorial District while Thursday and Friday will be attended by the Lagos East and Lagos West victims respectively.

Eshinlokun-Sanni, Chairman of the committee, said the terms of reference of the committee included to interface with all the victims, relevant stakeholders and community leaders and to ascertain the level of destruction.

The Deputy speaker said the purpose of the public hearing was also to ensure it brought succour and compensation by the government to the victims of the crisis.

“The committee has sent forms to the victims of the destructions across all the 40 constituencies in the state

“The House has been accepting submission of the forms, which will be the foundation of our consideration.

“We shall be leveraging on the knowledge and experiences of the experts such as architects, insurance, just to mention a few.

“They are to assess the details and make decisions on how to assuage the pains of our people,” he said.

Eshinlokun-Sanni said that the House was making a giant stride to complement other efforts and the House was garnered to display its indomitable resilience.

He said that the House had shown such character before and it was in its gene and would show it again when the need arose.

According to him, 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.

Eshinlokun-Sanni clarified the difference between the House’s committee with that of the judicial panel set up by the Gov. Babajide Sanwo-olu.

He explained that the judicial panel was meant to unravel the brutality by the police and what transpired during the shootings at Lekki.

He said: “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 to secure lives and property. 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 said.

The deputy speaker explained further that where the victims had insurance cover, they would be compensated and if they didn’t have they would still be compensated.

A victim, Mr Olugbenga Oresajo, whose shopping mall was destroyed urged the committee to give timeline that would stipulate when the whole process would end.

Shade Salami, a community leader, advised that the perpetrators of the carnage should be brought to justice to serve as deterrent to others who might have such sinister motives.

Adeola Alaka from Bode Thomas said the areas that were affected should be barricaded to distinguish them from other parts in the same vicinity not damaged.