Rivers government directs police to compensate victims of brutality

As electricity consumers protest against estimated billing

The Rivers State Executive Council has directed the Nigeria Police and culpable officers to pay compensations to victims of violence, torture, brutality, murder and violation of fundamental human rights.

The decision was taken after the five-man committee set up by Governor Nyesom Wike to draft a white paper on the recommendations of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry that investigated brutality and rights violation of citizens by the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) in the state, submitted its report yesterday.

Briefing journalists after the meeting presided over by Governor Wike at Government House, Port Harcourt, the Rivers State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Zacchaeus Adangor (SAN), stated that the police should pay compensations to victims of police brutality.

He stressed that either the police authorities or the officers, who perpetrated the crime should compensate the victims, insisting that the state government should not take responsibility for the compensation.

“The state government has directed the Attorney-General to publish a white paper on conclusions of the Rivers State Government on recommendations of the commission of inquiry and to transmit the white paper to the Nigeria Police for necessary action.

“This is because the panel had implicated some police officers in serial acts of brutality and violence against citizens of Rivers State and the entire country, including the notorious Akin Fakorode,” he stated.

MEANWHILE, electricity consumers in Rivers State, yesterday, protested against the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC), demanding its exit from the state over what they described as ‘fraudulent’ estimated billings.

They blocked the entrance of the PHEDC Corporate Office on Moscow Road in Port Harcourt Council, insisting that the billings amounted to daylight robbery and that they could no longer tolerate it.

Their leader, Enefaa Georgewill, threatened that the protest was a wake up call, stressing that if nothing serious was done about their demands, the residents would continue the demonstrations and likely do the unthinkable.

Management of PHEDC, however, assured that as a responsible corporate organisation, the company was open to dialogue with aggrieved customers.

Its Acting Manager, Corporate Communications, Chioma Aninwe, said it was government’s responsibility to determine tariff, maintaining that the distribution companies (DisCos) had no hand in the billing system.