Victims of police brutality send SOS to Ishaku over damages
SURVIVORS of police brutality in Taraba State have sent a Save Our Soul ( SOS) message to Governor Darius Ishaku, urging him to help facilitate the payment of compensation awarded to them by the Christopher Awubra- led panel.
Briefing journalists yesterday in Jalingo, the victims expressed dismay that no information regarding payment of damages had been given to them since the panel completed its assignments.
They had taken to the streets on Monday in a peaceful protest against the delay in the payment of damages, citing other states where they claimed compensation had been paid to victims.
Ferdinand Kakaba and Usman Abdul, who acted as the chairman and spokesperson of the victims, passionately beckoned the governor to wade in by ensuring that the amount awarded to them by the panel were made available to them.
Enumerating the untold hardship they were experiencing, the damages, they believed, if paid, would go a long way in wiping away tears from their cheeks.
Kakaba said: “Some of us are now incapacitated following the brutality we went through in the hands of the police. As you ( journalists) can see from the number of victims that are here briefing you, majority of us can no longer put food on the table for our families.
“So, we are here for you to help us use your various media to call on our governor to come and rescue us because we are suffering.”
Aligning his weight to that of chairman, Abdul also narrated in tears how the police gruesomely murdered his elder brother, abandoning his two wives and 10 children for him to cater for.
Other victims, who spoke with The Guardian after the briefing, said their deformities were necessitated by the unlawful arrest, torture and detention they suffered in police custody.
The victims, who had stormed the secretariat of Nigeria Union of Journalists ( NUJ), Taraba chapter, on Monday, beckoned the state government to ensure they were adequately compensated.