November 21, (THEWILL) – After slightly over a year of working in the comfort of the Lagos Court of Arbitration located at 1A, Remi Olowude Street, 2nd Roundabout, Lekki-Epe Expressway, Okunde Bluewater Scheme, Lekki Peninsula, Phase 1, Lagos, members of the Lagos Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and Other Matters are in the hot seat of public opinion since Monday, November 15, 2021 when the panel submitted its report to the Lagos State Government.
UNCERTAINTY TRAILS REPORT
The report is believed to be tainted, with 40 discrepancies from the original. Only the state government’s White Paper can have the final say. A certain member of the judicial panel of inquiry was alleged to have received bribe to insert things in the report. The state government is believed to be working towards a planned and unfavourable outcome.
Members of the panel, who had taken to the public to say one or two things about the report, are trading blames, engaging in endless accusations and counter-accusations and exchanging insults, even as they pledge to respect the rule of the game and await the White Paper on the report.
“It is true we are not allowed to speak on the report and must await the government White Paper. But while the government is asking us to keep quiet, it is lining up its officials to talk,” Mr Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN, told THEWILL in a brief interview. He was one of the representatives of the civil society on the panel.
Pressed to explain further, he asked to be allowed to finish a related statement he was writing on Friday morning and promised to email it. He fulfilled his promise before noon. The statement is titled, EndSARS Panel: I Acted On the Mandate of the Governor. The Senior Advocate of Nigeria reacted to an ongoing debate on the report by those he called government representatives, hinting that it is an officially orchestrated plan to sabotage the report.
The statement, reads in part: “I have listened to the narratives of the Lagos State Government through one of its Senior Counsels on the #EndSARS panel, to the effect that Nigerians should reject the report of the panel because I signed it, since I was not present at some of its sittings.
“I served on the panel on the mandate of the governor of Lagos State, who told me on telephone that I was chosen to represent CIVIL SOCIETY. I requested and approval was granted in writing, that my appointment was on a part-time basis. Furthermore, the governor told me that two members were chosen to represent civil society on the panel so that one of us would always be present to excuse the absence of the other. I accepted the appointment in good faith, to serve the people, to calm frayed nerves at the time and also to restore normalcy to Lagos State. So, at all times, I functioned in partnership with my colleague from civil society and there was no major sitting of the panel in which both of us were absent.
“I also served on the panel free of charge, from October 19, 2020 when it was inaugurated till November 15, 2021, when it submitted its report. The government was well aware of my identity, my perspectives, my philosophies and my general convictions, at least since my university days, before it nominated me to the panel, that I will always say things the way they are. All the members of the panel acted in good faith, independently and in the fear of God Almighty.
“It is therefore improper for the Lagos State Government, through its lawyer who appeared before the panel and other sponsored agents, to subject the report of the panel and indeed, the integrity of the members to media trials and attacks, all in a bid to build up the contents of its White Paper, which we can now reasonably foretell from these sponsored media attacks.
“It is, indeed, uncharitable for the same government that urged the panel not to be held down by strict rules of technicalities of law in order to unravel the real truth about the Lekki Tollgate incident, to now through its counsel, talk about alleged legal discrepancies in order to frustrate the good work of the panel that it set up.
“There are documents to back up and defend the report submitted to the governor by the panel, but I have chosen to defer to His Excellency and to await the White Paper as promised because I believe that the governor meant well in setting up the panel and giving us the free hand to operate. I appeal to His Excellency to continue in that note of sincerity.”
RAGING CONTROVERSY
The government lawyer on the panel that Adegboruwa referred to was Mr Abiodun Jelili Owonikoko, SAN, who appeared on Arise TV last Thursday to speak on the panel’s report.
Owonikoko, a private solicitor retained by the Lagos State Government on the Lagos #EndSARS panel, said, among other things, that the panel’s report he had seen was “unsigned” and going through it, he could tell it was not “an unanimous decision of the members’ position. It may well be a draft of a minority report.”
Explaining further, he said he was shocked to read in the report, “particular findings with regard to 40 something victims, some of whom were described as deceased or missing and some of whom had come out to say they did not die, especially a man who came to testify at his brother’s death, to whom damages amounting to N15 million was to be awarded. Any report that had that fundamental error will not be supported by any reasonable person.”
Although Owonikoko dismissed those whom he claimed said the report was unfavourable to the state government, which he said was not, he, however, argues that the government should have set up two different panels, one on #EndSARs and another one to probe the Lekki Tollgate killings.
“The mistake by the government is that it should have appointed two panels. The panel was set up to address police brutality and EndSARS and in the course of its work, the Lekki incident happened. The panel’s work had to be expanded. Three members of that panel are protagonists. They are not entitled to sit on that panel. That was why they initially had dissenting opinions as soon as the tollgate incident happened. Some of them were in the position to express dispassionate opinions. The one that issued a statement, “Adegboruwa, stopped coming to sitting for five months. These people swore to an oath of fidelity, impartiality and confidentiality, not to divulge the content of proceedings anywhere, except await government reports.”
Adegboruwa however disagrees with Owonikoko’s remarks that there was a minority report by a member of the panel.
“There is no minority report from the panel as the report submitted to the Lagos State governor on November 15, 2021 was unanimously endorsed by all members of the panel, who worked tirelessly, day and night, to serve the government and the people, even at great risks to their health, personal safety, career and family obligations and their general well-being.
“I’m very sure that members of the panel would have been lionised to the highest heavens, if we had bought into the narrative of the government before the panel that criminals, cultists, hoodlums and unknown gunmen had operated at the Lekki Tollgate on October 20, 2020,” he said, adding that some connected persons found the decisions of the panel shocking.
Another member of the panel, Temitope Majekodunmi, who represented the youths, also disagrees with Owonikoko about the report’s authenticity.
In a statement, last Wednesday, he admitted that there were typographical errors in the report in circulation, adding that they were corrected before the report was submitted to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
He said, “While others were particular about the error of name duplications, it is imperative to note that the leaked report in circulation is not far from the original, but I can confirm that the original is without all the identified errors.”
LEAKED REPORT
Further investigation shows that the report in circulation was a deliberate mission. There is fear, though unsubstantiated, among some members of the panel that the government may reject some of the recommendations in the report, particularly those that appear to indict the army and police and “make the Federal Government look too brutish,” as a source puts it. By this, he meant that leaking the report was a strategic move to ensure that all the issues surrounding police brutality in Nigeria and the controversy surrounding the tollgate killings have the possibility of being resolved, if the recommendations of the panel see the light of the day.
For him, the fact that Lagos is central to the EndSARS protest, considering the massive scale of destruction, the tollgate incident and its role as the commercial nerve of the country, makes the report a reference point in the country.
“Many state judicial panels have since submitted their reports to their governors, but have you heard anything from them? Lagos is different. The Federal Government has constantly maintained that there was no massacre at the tollgate and the reports were fabricated. But the judicial panel’s findings do not support that view. In fact, it is explosive. The truth of the matter is that the thing is already in the public space. Any attempt to whitewash it would blow up in their faces and they would spend the remaining years of their tenure trying to defend it.”
Michael Ugochukwu Stephen, aka Ruggedman, was one of the active #EndSARS protesters. Speaking to our correspondent on the ‘leaked report’, he said, “There shouldn’t be any controversy surrounding it. It was collated by the panel set up by the government. The person who leaked it must have known that there might be some discrepancies. That was why the person took that step. It shouldn’t be turned into a controversy. After all, it was collated by a constituted panel.”
According to him, eyewitnesses like himself and Dj Switch, as well as all those who watched the recording of what happened during the protest know the truth.
“It was recorded as it was happening during the protest. We don’t need to be vindicated. We all know what happened and it cannot be changed,” he told THEWILL.
Stephen also expressed hope that the much awaited White Paper would be fair and reasonable
“People are watching. The whole world is watching, too. Nobody can be fooled again. I think that is the more reason the person who leaked the report did so. Just to ensure that it is already out there to avoid any type of drama later,” he said.
The so-called leaked report is a 309-page document detailing terms of reference, proceedings, findings and recommendations of the Justice Doris Okuwobi -led #EndSARS judicial panel.
In its reaction, the Lagos State Government called for caution and patience among members of the public. Commenting, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, said, “There have been arguments in the public space over the report. There is a need for us to restrain ourselves from nullifying the good intentions of the government in setting up this panel, which was well encouraged to do its job, a fact that was acknowledged by the panel.
“In accordance with the Tribunal of Inquiry Law 2015, a committee has been set up to bring up a White Paper on the report to determine the next line of action. At the appropriate time, the government will make known its views on all the issues raised by the panel through the release of a White Paper.”
Meanwhile, the state government has set up a four-member committee led by the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Moyosore Onigbanjo, SAN, to work on the report before it issues a White Paper on it. Other members of the committee are the Commissioner for Youths and Social Development, Segun Dawodu; Special Adviser to the Governor on Works and Infrastructure, Engr. Aramide Adeyoye and Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Office, Tolani Oshodi.
OTHER REACTIONS FOR AND AGAINST
Meanwhile, the United States of America, the United Nations and United Kingdom have called on the Federal Government to ensure that those found culpable in connection with the #EndSARS protest were held accountable and punished.
The Army and Police authorities have indicated their intention to speak on the findings of the Judicial Panel only after the state government has issued a White Paper on it.
President Muhammadu Buhari has also promised to look into the panel reports from the states as soon as the Federal Government received them through the National Economic Council. He told visiting U.S Secretary of State, Anthony Bliken, at the State House in Abuja last week that the government was awaiting the submission of panel reports by state governments.
The National Economic Council had on October 19, 2020 directed all states to set up Judicial Panels of Inquiry on police brutality.
Amos Esele is the Acting Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
