The Judicial Panel of Inquiry (JPI) sitting in Awka, Anambra state capital says it has received a total of 310 petition as at Dec 8, 2020.
JPI was set up in most states of Nigerian on the directive of the Federal government in the aftermath of #EndSARS protests to investigate allegations of abuse and brutality against the Police on Nigeria.
Hon. Justice Veronica Umeh, Chairman of JPI in Anambra said 23 petitions have been concluded after 11 sittings including those struck out for bordering on issues outside the panels’ terms of reference.
Umeh said the panel had applied for additional 24 sittings after the initial 12 sittings which would elapse on Dec. 10 to enable it attend to the barrage of petitions before it.
She said the panel had closed the window of submission by petitioners adding that the panel had applied additional 24 sittings to enable it attend to all the petitions before it.
“We have a total of 287 outstanding petitions from 310 so far received, we have concluded 23 in all because the one coming on Jan.19 is mere formality, I would say that Anambra has a the highest number of petition
“On Thursday, Dec. 10 we may have to go on vacation for Christmas and New Year break because traffic is building up and some petitioners and respondent may not be able to appear, so we have decided to vacate after Thursday and next adjourned date will be communicated.
“We have applied for extension, today is our 11th sitting, so we have just one more sitting, we hope that before Thursday the approval will come.
“We applied for 24 more sitting in view of the number of pending sitting and hope to be treating 10 cases every day and with that we can conclude all the petitions.
“The number got to 310 because the police themselves filed petitions against police brutality on them and we have separated them from those of victims of Police brutality,” she said.