PARENTS of protesters allegedly shot dead at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos on October 20, 2020 during the nationwide street demonstrations against police brutality have engaged leading lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, to fight their cause. This development is likely to open a new vista in the tirade-trading trailing the Lekki incident where military authorities confirmed that live bullets, as well as blank ones, were fired at protesters who threw stones at soldiers during the protest.
Agents of the state, operatives of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and sympathetic senior lawyers have disputed the findings of a fact-finding panel set up by the Lagos State government to probe the shooting incident, especially the claim of a massacre allegedly carried out by army and police personnel against unarmed, innocent protesters.
Before the latest legal and constitutional fight, erupting over the indicting panel report, agents of the Federal Government, led by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had sustained attacks against claims that protesters were shot dead on the protest ground.
At multiple media outings, Mr Mohammed had challenged parents and relatives of those allegedly shot dead by army and police personnel at the Toll Gate to show up. He declared the alleged massacre as “bloodless” and “bodyless”.
The decision of the victims’ parents to eventually step out of the shadow, following the Lagos State White Paper which cleared army and police of extrajudicial killings, is likely to change the narrative of the incident. Falana confirmed the development to Saturday Tribune on Friday after he had, on Thursday at a media event, promised that “Nigerians will soon hear from us.”
Apart from the parents of the victims, survivors of the shooting incident have also briefed the Senior Advocate of Nigeria to officially take up their cases against the Lagos State government and the Federal Government whose agents were accused of conducting the extrajudicial killings. Mr Falana confirmed that he is now officially representing the two groups.
When asked if he had been asked by his latest clients to commence legal actions against the Federal Government and the administration of Governor Babajide SanwoOlu, he refused to breach lawyer-client confidentiality by keeping mum on what they discussed.
“All I will tell you for now is that they (parents of the victims and survivors) have briefed us and we are advising them on what to do but we are going to ensure justice is meted out,” he said.
When asked if the hiring was what he meant by “Nigerians will soon hear from us”, he still refused to be drawn out, saying he and his clients were keeping their game plan to their chest.
The rights advocate, however, called on Nigerians to note that Governor SanwoOlu himself acknowledged that two people were killed at the Toll Gate during the protest and the White Paper from the state government also pointedly said that one of the two dead bodies had bullet wounds.
He also called the attention of the nation to the report from government’s pathologist who said that 99 corpses of those killed during the protest all over the state were recovered and deposited in various morgues.
Falana equally alluded to the 348 bodies given mass burial in the North not too long ago, allegedly killed by officers of the Nigerian army, saying “no regime should be allowed to continue this way because even a life must matter to us all.”
He dismissed the reported plan by some youths to organise a 10-million man march in support of the governor.
“It is not my business if anybody wants to march for anyone,” he said. Official olive branch extended to prominent EndSARS campaigners by Governor Sanwo-Olu was unanimously rejected on the basis of ‘no justice, no peace.
Coalition vows to defend Lagos govt Meanwhile, a coalition of about 60 civil society organisations, including the Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM), Activists for Good Governance (AGG), Coalition of Oodua Self-Determination Groups (COSEG), has vowed to defend Lagos State against those it said were not pleased with the White Paper on the EndSARS panel report released by the state government and were bent on setting the state on fire.
The groups, under the aegis of Defend Lagos Coalition, made the vow on Friday at a press briefing in Ikeja, even as the body expressed its support for Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s proposed ‘Peace Walk’, assuring him that he would not walk alone.
The group, whose address was read by Mr Declan Ihekaire, frowned at the condemnation of the state’s White Paper and alleged that people that were not pleased with the document for failing to admit that there was massacre at the Lekki Toll Gate, had started mobilising their cohorts to stage another protest and destruction.
“This is nothing but an act of economic sabotage by the same unseen forces to return to the streets of Lagos and finish the destruction of what they left behind in October 2020 like the Egyptian plagues.
“Let it be made clear here today again, we will defend Lagos using the people power. It will be purposeful, it will be legal,” the coalition said.
The coalition pledged its support for the ‘Peace Walk’ proposed by Governor SanwoOlu, saying it “ccepts” the invitation of the governor. It commended the governor for the spirit of statesmanship he displayed in reaching out to some of the leaders of the EndSARS movement during his broadcast on Tuesday. It noted that the fact that the state government met the 14-day timeline it set for the release of the White Paper on the panel report was a virtue.
The coalition appealed to the state government to begin the full implementation of all the recommendations stated in the White Paper that were within its purview without delay, just as the governor was urged to rally all the necessary institutions to push for necessary reforms in the Nigeria Police.
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