The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry probing allegations of human rights abuses against the disbanded police Special Anti-Robbery Squad on Saturday gave a cheque of N7.5m to a 40-year-old man, Marc Nwadi, unduly incarcerated for six years in at the Kirikiri prison without trial.
Nwadi had during his appearance before the retired Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel recounted how his inability to pay a bribe of N10,000 to policemen in the Idimu area of Lagos led him to prison where he spent six years unjustly.
In her ruling on Saturday, Justice Okuwobi said “The petitioner was incarcerated in the prime of his life without justification for six years and was never tried or sentenced for any crime despite enduring a long six-year stay in prison and losing a vital part of his youth and opportunities.
“We hereby give an award of N7.5m in favour of the petitioner.”
The panel chairman also recommended that the Investigating Police Officer in charge of the case should be suspended for six months without pay.
Nwadi had told the panel that he was only 18 years old when he was picked by policemen at a bus stop in the Egbeda area of Lagos State in May 1999.
He said he had just completed secondary school education at the time and had the ambition of studying journalism.
He said he came from Abia State to Lagos State to look for his brother who was living then in Egbeda. But on getting to the address given to him at about 9.30pm, one young man told him that his brother no longer lived there.
He said the neighbours could not tell him where his brother relocated to and because it was already late, he begged a barber operating in the building to let him pass the night in his shop.
Nwadi said he got up the following morning at about 5.30am and headed for the bus stop with a plan to look for his uncle at Surulere.
He said he was standing at the bus stop with his travel bag and a polythene bag alongside other persons waiting for a bus, when a police vehicle suddenly appeared, stopped and policemen began to arrest people.
Nwadi said fresh arrest, he tried to explain and ask questions but was beaten each time he tried to speak.
