White Paper: Sanwo-Olu Rips Apart Panel’s Report on #EndSARS

The Lagos State Government, last night, released its much-awaited White Papers on the report of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry over alleged police brutality, especially, the October 20, 2020 incident at the Lekki toll plaza and ripped it apart.

According to the White paper, of the 32 recommendations made by the panel on the Lekki toll gate shooting, the state government only accepted 11, rejected one outright, agreed on six, albeit with modifications, while 14, which fell outside its powers would be forwarded to the federal government for consideration.

Importantly, the White Paper, which addressed each of the recommendations and passed a verdict, rejected claims that nine people died at the Lekki toll plaza.

Meanwhile, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who for the first time, reacted to the panel’s report in a broadcast yesterday at the Lagos House, Ikeja, promised that his government would bring closure to the painful episode of the #EndSARS with the White Paper.

But the government, while disputing some of the claims in the report, insisted it was full of discrepancies, irregularities and inaccuracies with claims of deaths of victims, even when some paragraphs of the same report revealed different claims and assertion.

In the White Paper released by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Gbenga Omotoso, the government described as baffling, the report that nine protesters were killed during the protest, saying apart from listing out their names in tabular form on pages 297-298, the JPI offered no explanation regarding circumstances of their deaths, adding that the names only sprang up at 297-298 of the report without any justification.

“It is quite astonishing that in the list of eleven (11) deaths set at pages 297-298, two (2) of the names appeared twice (Kolade Salam, Folorunsho Olabisi as Nos. 37 and 38). Furthermore, the person listed, as No. 46, Nathaniel Solomon, who testified as a witness and petitioned the JPI in respect of his brother, who he alleged died at LTC, himself listed as having died at LTG on 20th October 2020.

“Remarkably, Nathaniel Solomon’s deceased brother (Abata Soloma, was then also listed as No 2 on the list of persons, who died at LTG. The only victim of gunshot injury from LTG was picked up at 7:43, on 21th October 2020 after the curfew commenced (see page 99). Furthermore, there was no shred of evidence regarding, who shot him.

“Another substantial inconsistency in the JPI Report was the award of compensation to only one (1) out of the alleged nine (9), listed as ‘deceased’, which showed that the JPI itself had doubts as to the deaths of eight (8) other allegedly deceased persons on its list. See page 304 of the JPI Report,” the White Paper stated.

The government also picked hole in the justification for the award of money to one Serah Ibrahim, saying she was neither a petitioner nor a claimant before the JPI.

“The JPI also surprisingly awarded the sum of N10m to one Serah Ibrahim (listed as No. 14 on Page 304 of the Report). Serah Ibrahi was neither a Petitioner nor a Claimant before the JPI. At Page 179 of the report, Serah Ibrahim testified on oath that she did not have any petition before the panel, neither did she have any claims for compensation.

“This award to Serah Ibrahim is also contrary to the provisions of Section 13, Tribunal of Inquiry Law 2015 (Cap. T6 La of Lagos State), which prescribes that only witnesses requested summoned by a Tribunal of Inquiry are entitled to witness fees subject to consent of the Attorney General. Serah Ibrahim did not testify at the request or summons of the Tribunal. See pages 17-18 of the report for the list of summoned witnesses,” the paper stated.

On what it considered as fundamental inconsistencies in the findings of the JPI regarding the nine (9) deaths at LTG, the state government maintained that it rejected the claim, because the finding were clearly and manifestly not supported by evidence.

The government added that the JPI attested to the fact that there was nothing contrary to that of Professor Obafunwa, that only one person died at LTG of gunshot wounds on 21st October, 2020.

“The JPI’s finding of nine (9) deaths is, therefore, irreconcilable with the evidence of Prof. Obafunwa, that only one (1) person died of gunshot wounds at 7:43pm at LTG on 21stOctober, 2020.

“Having held that there was no evidence before it to the contrary of what Prof. Obafunwa said, the question is, where did the JPI then get its finding of nine (9) deaths? (see table at pages 297-298).

“It also follows the irresistible conclusions to be drawn from the JPI’s acceptance of Prof. Obafunwa’s testimony that only one (1) person died of gunshot wounds at LTG on 21stOctober 2020 is that there was no massacre at LTG, contextual or otherwise.

“The findings of the JPI that nine (9) people died at LTG on 21st October 2020 from gunshots fired by the military are based on assumptions speculations.

“The inconsistencies and contradictions in the entire JPI report concerning the number of persons, who died at LTG on 20th October 2020, and their cause of death rendered the JPI’s findings and conclusions thereon as totally unreliable and therefore unacceptable.”

Further on other recommendations, the Lagos government said, it has no control over the internal affairs of the Nigeria Police Force, and that the recommendation would be forwarded to the appropriate authorities, namely the federal government of Nigeria, National Economic Council, Police Service Commission and Nigeria Police Force.

Government, however, promised to set up a separate statewide Helpline for human rights abuses in addition to its existing Emergency Toll-Free (767 & 112) Helplines, assuring the people that the recommendations would also be forwarded to the National Economic Council.

Specifically, on police brutality, the government said out of the 22 recommendations, it would only accept four and forward 18 to the federal government, three of which overlap and have also been accepted.

The state government further added that it lacked the powers to investigate and fish out police officers as recommended by the JPI at pages 249-254 of the report.