Southern Youths Warn Gov Sanwo-Olu over EndSARS Panel Report
The Southern Youth Forum, the umbrella body of youth leaders from the 17 Southern States of Nigeria, has described the submission of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and other matters, as a phantom, inconsistent and misleading report.
This is as the youth leaders vow to institute legal action against the Lagos State government if it fails to forward the recommendation of the #EndSARS panel report to President Muhammadu Buhari before issuing a WhitePaper on the report.
Addressing a press conference in Ibadan, Oyo State, on Wednesday, the leadership of the forum, Barrister John Atani (South-South); Engr Fidelis Nze (South-East), and Comrade Oladimeji Odeyemi (South-West), said if the leaked document in circulation is what was submitted to Governor Sanwo-Olu, then, “it means that some people are playing dangerous games to smear the image of Buhari and the military”.
Picking holes in the circulated report, the forum lamented that the panel allegedly jettisoned details and facts in its submission, but rather played up emotions, sentiments and fictitious numbers to put the Nigerian Army, especially in a bad light.
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The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and other matters, set up by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, on Monday submitted its report to the state government after over one year of sitting.
Among other things, the panel stated that at least nine persons were killed and 39 others injured at the Lekki toll plaza on October 20, 2020.
The Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel also recommended that all soldiers (excluding Major General Omata), who were deployed in the Lekki tollgate, should be made to face appropriate disciplinary action, stripped of their ranks, and dismissed as they were not fit and proper to serve in any public or security service of the nation.
But SYF said describing the Lekki Toll Gate incident as a ‘massacre’ by security agencies is “at best an untidy, over-stretched imagination from the panel”.
“Did what happened on October 20th, 2020 qualify as a massacre? Why did the panel not able to fully convince itself that there was a massacre, but rather contextualised it in the report? Well, the truth is that the panelists knew there was no massacre in the real sense of it but rather chose to give room for ambiguities, but to what end?
“We can conveniently say that the panel appeared to be working to an answer to settle some God knows scores. It appears it relied more on social media gist and beer parlour content in its submission.
“Ordinarily, the panel’s job was intended to help the society know the truth and possibly find closure, but it has not only created doubts, but has also falsely fired up the adrenaline of tension and mistrust in an already vulnerable environment.”
