The government’s planned payment of compensation packages to the victims of the Ayawaso West Wuogon (AWW) by-election violence came to an abrupt end today, Friday, October 22, 2021.
This was after lawyers of the victims called for the suspension of the payments being made by the Ministry of National Security, for further deliberations.
“This has taken our clients by surprise. They were not in the know that today is going to be the day for the award of compensation. We are also concerned about how the computation of the compensation was done. We would have expected that for transparency and fairness sake, we as lawyers would have been part of the processes to see that it was fair and transparent.”
The Emile Short Commission that probed the Ayawaso West Wuogon violence, among other things, recommended that victims of the violence should be paid compensation for the harm they suffered, which was accepted by the government’s White Paper.
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The victims who sustained injuries due to the abuse meted out to them by the armed security personnel on duty had decried the delay in the payment of the compensation package to them.
They stressed that they together with their families have been struggling as a result of the painful experience.
Some assaulted victims went through life-altering experiences with some scheduled for more surgeries, others incapacitated for life, another suffering stroke, and one person dead as a result of internal bleeding caused by gun-shot wounds.
It is based on these that Mr. Amaliba believes further consultations must be held to ensure equity in the payment procedure
