Lagos #EndSARs panel’s report: Matters arising

RATHER than assuage feelings, the White Paper recently released by the Lagos State government on the report of its judicial panel on #EndSARS has succeeded in further inflaming passions and anger over the events that transpired at the Lekki toll gate on October 20, 2020. In the White Paper, the government rejected the submission of the judicial panel of inquiry and restitution that there was a massacre at the toll gate during the incident. It specifically disagreed with the finding of the panel that nine people died on the said day from gunshots fired by the military, saying that it was based on speculation. According to the Lagos State government, there were noticeable inconsistencies and contradictions in the report as to the number of persons who died and the cause of their deaths, inconsistencies which made the panel’s findings and conclusions totally unreliable and unacceptable. It said: “The only victim of gunshot injury from Lekki toll gate was picked up at 7:43 p.m. on October 21, 2020 after the curfew commenced. Furthermore, there was no shred of evidence regarding who shot him.”

The judicial panel which was led by Doris Okuwobi, a retired judge, had labelled what happened on the fateful night as a massacre, maintaining that at least 46 unarmed protesters were either shot dead, injured with bullets, or assaulted by security forces in the grisly episode. It affirmed that peaceful protesters were indeed killed by state agents. Earlier, there had been suspicion that the Lagos White Paper would make a complete departure from the recommendations of the panel when agents of the government and the Federal Government, through the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, attacked both the members of the panel and their report. According to the minister, the report was riddled with “errors, inconsistencies, discrepancies, speculations, innuendos, omissions and conclusions that are not supported by evidence.”

Mohammed added: “It is simply incredible that a judicial panel set up to investigate an incident has submitted a report laden with allegations, the same allegations it was set up to investigate in the first instance. Instead of sitting for all of one year, the panel could have just compiled social media ‘tales by the moonlight’ on the incident and submitted, saving taxpayers’ funds and everyone’s time. That report is nothing but the triumph of fake news and the intimidation of a silent majority by a vociferous lynch mob.” When the White Paper eventually came, it became an affirmation of the Federal Government’s stance and a pointer to the fact that the state government was wary of the report pulling the rug from under its feet.

In disclaiming the report, the Federal Government side-stepped multiple evidence which included newspaper investigations, certified video footages of events and a CNN report that painted a very graphic picture. To say the very least, we are unimpressed by the government’s response to the events of the tragic night at Lekki.

While engaged in their multiple denials, none of the government officials under reference and their agents have come out to convincingly explain what actually transpired. For instance, while the White Paper agreed that the Lagos State government paid hospitals that treated wounded victims that night, it failed to see that this was a veiled admittance of casualty. Who then shot the victims of gunshot wounds whose hospital bills the government admitted it paid? Again, the admission by the Lekki Concessioning Company (LCC), a critical stakeholder, via a press release the following day, namely that soldiers shot into the unarmed crowd, cannot be said to have been naive. The judicial panel found that some government agencies were deployed to the crime scene on October 21, 2020 to mop up blood and destroy evidence.

It is in the resolution of what soldiers and police did at Lekki on October 20, 2020, that light could be shed on the incident.

All said, we still would charge that all parties involved in the Lagos #EndSARS saga must come to the round table to deal with candour issues thrown up in the Okuwobi Panel report with the view to restoring peaceful co- existence in Lagos and the country at large. This is the way to go!

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