Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has added additional three months to the sitting of Lagos judicial panel on police brutality, Peoples Gazette can report. 

Sources familiar with the governor’s decision said it came on Friday afternoon after the governor received complaints that the panel needed additional time to conclude extant cases. Only about 40 per cent of cases have been concluded as of this month, The Gazette learnt, while restitution was also yet to be concluded for approved compensations. 

Some victim lawyers on the panel criticised the move, however, telling The Gazette that it was an attempt by the government to buy more time to manipulate some of the critical cases pending before the panel. 

The governor denied trying to buy time to influence unfavourable verdicts of the panel, saying his decision to extend stemmed largely from the need to ensure that as many cases of injustice were resolved. 

The governor also promised to release additional funding to pay out approved but unsettled compensations.

The additional releases were expected to be significantly greater than the N200 million already released by the Sanwo-Olu administration, sources familiar with the decision told The Gazette on Friday. 

The panel was raised last November following historic #EndSARS campaign against decades of police violence and corruption. 

The panel was initially scheduled to conclude its activities this month, but its members will now sit through the end of October 2021.