Youth representatives boycott Lagos panel as CBN freezes accounts of #EndSARS protesters

Chairman of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry, Retired Justice Doris Okuwobi, has adjourned sitting to November 14 due to the inability to form quorum due to the absence of two youth representatives at the panel in protest of their bank accounts that were frozen by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Retired Justice Okuwobi stated that the adjournment is important because the youths who are also members of the #EndSARS protest are key members of the panel.

CBN on October 20 froze the accounts of some of EndSARS protesters, including Oduala Oluwarinumi, a member of the panel perceived to be funding the protest. The action of CBN was affirmed by an Abuja High Court on Friday.

Reacting to the development, counsel to the EndSARS protesters, Adesina Ogunlana, described the development as scandalous and an embarrassment to the panel and the country’s judiciary.

He stated,” We got here this morning to see a diminished panel. Instead of eight-member panel, two of the youth representatives are absent in protest against the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria to freeze their accounts.

“The Chairman of the panel didn’t just adjourn but gave her reasons which is the inability to form a quorum because the law that set up necessitated the presence of the youth. One of the youths, Oluwarinumi Oduala, was included in the list of those accounts was frozen following the exparte order of a court in Abuja.

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“The lawyer who obtained that order was former Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Aondoaka. But what is important here is that these youths are on a panel set up by the Lagos State government and they are being sanctioned by another government. I wondered whether the integrity of the panel will not be compromised. The state and Federal Government are committed to peace but what we are having here is a situation of the declaration of war.

“And that is what the youth have read into it. I am advising the panel to be proactive and do something. This is embarrassing to the panel. The authority that set them up is decapping them. This is an attack on the judiciary because the panel is a Judicial panel. It is the duty of the bar to protect the panel.”

“The Nigerian Army whose representatives are already prepared to make their presentation couldn’t go ahead.”

Lead counsel of the Nigerian Army, Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN said, “I am here in pursuant of the summon issues to us. We appreciate the panel for taking us in confidence and express the challenges the panel is facing. As you rightly observed, we came from different jurisdiction. We will like to be guided on when you want us to be back.”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE