EndSars panelists studying White Paper to respond at the appropriate time
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Lagos EndSars panelists say they are planning a response to the White Paper Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu issued on their report which will show that he cherry picked points to distort the document for his predetermined denial.
Sanwo-Olu released the White Paper late on Tuesday after his televised press briefing earlier in the day.
Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and member of the panel, said the White Paper is being studied to present a “no-holds-barred” response to it “at the appropriate time”.
He disclosed that no member of the panel was informed of the release of the White Paper nor given a copy by the government.
Lagos Attorney General and Justice Commissioner Moyosore Onigbanjo has defended the White Paper.
But others who criticise it include former Senator Shehu Sani; National Human Rights Commission Chairman, Chidi Odinkalu; Mike Ozekhome (SAN); Centre for Liberty Convener Ariyo-Dare Atoye; and lawyer and activist Abdul Mahmud.
They also include two other SANs, Dele Farotimi and Adeyinka Olumide Fusika, who accuse Onigbanjo, a fellow SAN, of playing games with the facts.
Sani tweeted: “The Lagos #whitepaper is a Whitewash. Cherry-picking the truth from the buffet of truths.”
Odinkalu said: “Can someone pls tell me how a governor who wants peace goes to release the most important #WhitePaper of his tenure in the middle of the night? The #ForcesOfDarkness….! #WalkForPiss.”
Mahmud said: “As expected, Sanwo-Olu’s White Paper on Lagos State #Endsars Report whitewashes the army with falsehood: nobody was killed in Lekki Tollgate.
Quoting Dele Giwa, he added: “No evil deed can go unpunished. Any evil done by man to man will be redressed, if not by man then by God.”
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Adegboruwa
Adegboruwa issued a statement in which he accused the Lagos government of creating the wrong impression of financial impropriety against panel members to distract the public.
“Since November 15, 2021, when the Reports of the #EndSARS Judicial Panel were submitted to the Lagos State Government, a good number of my colleagues, friends and admirers prevailed on me to refrain from further public pronouncements on the activities and reports of the Panel since the government was studying the said reports,” he said.
“Upon the submission of the said reports, lawyers on the payroll of the government and other employees of the government took turns to denigrate the reports, on national television, in paid adverts in newspapers and on the social media.
“Ministers in the Cabinet of the Federal Government have also commented on the said reports, in some cases calling members of the Panel unprintable names and even comparing victims of brutality and human rights abuses to goats and taunting their already traumatised families and friends.
“On November 30, 2021, the government released two separate White Papers, to the general public. The Panel was not informed of this action and it was not availed copies of the said White Papers, till this moment.
“The Committee that reviewed the Reports of the Panel and which produced the White Papers was headed by the Honourable Attorney-General of Lagos State.
“On December 1, 2021, the Honourable Attorney-General of Lagos State was a guest on Arise Television, where he took time to discuss the Reports of the Panel and the contents of the White Papers that his Committee produced. The impression was also created that the Panel mismanaged funds released to it.
“It has become necessary therefore for me and all other Members of the Panel to study the White Papers and make appropriate responses thereto. There will be no-holds-barred, since the government itself has opened the doors for public scrutiny of the report and the white papers.
“For the records, the Panel relied upon the evidence of witnesses, documents tendered before it and the goodwill of the people of Nigeria, throughout its assignment.
“It is painful for me and the Panel that the government is creating the wrong impression of financial impropriety as a tool of distraction when the Panel had a Secretariat that managed all its funds, through the Ministry of Justice.
“Although I served on the Panel free of charge without collecting a dime, I know as a fact that other members served sacrificially, giving up their time, families and careers for a whole year.
“At the appropriate time, we will respond to all the inaccuracies, the coverups and the inconsistencies contained in the White Papers released by the government.
“Assuredly, nothing can ever cover the truth. What happened at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020, was already in the public domain, those who received the bullets knew what happened and the doctors that treated them knew what happened. The Panel reports only confirmed what most Nigerians already knew.”
Onigbanjo
Onigbanjo picked holes in the report of the panel when he appeared on Arise Television on Wednesday morning and argued that the panel did not present evidence to justify its conclusion that soldiers killed nine people at Lekki toll gate.
He said the testimony of Lagos State Chief Pathologist John Obafunwa, a professor, contradicted the panel’s report when he said only one of the three bodies recovered from Lekki died of gunshot injuries.
Onigbanjo wondered how the panel compiled the list of nine people killed, and how it concluded that Solomon Nathaniel, one of the witnesses who testified at the panel, was also one of those killed.
Later in the day, Farotimi and Fusika appeared on Arise Television to counter him.
Farotimi
“Let’s weigh it this way. We are all lawyers. When a lawyer has the law, he argues law. When the lawyer is bereft of the law, he argues fact. When neither the law nor the facts are in your favour, you find distractions.
“What has been happening is that each and every person speaking for either the Nigerian government, the Nigerian army, the Lagos government, each and every one of them, when they open their mouth to talk, they know ab initio that they cannot afford to tell the truth.
“The spectre of the ICPC is looming over so many shoulders. Let’s be clear about that.”
Fusika
“I heard the Attorney General going on and on with what Professor Obafunwa said and how it contradicted the tribunal findings. With due respect to the Attorney General, I think that as a senior lawyer, he should stop this kind of thing ….
“There was a publication by the coroner of Lagos State. That they have 99 bodies in their mortuary dumped there as a result of violent deaths, gunshots and all that during the EndSARS period. They asked people to come and identify them ….
“[Onigbanjo] was particular about a person called Nathaniel Solomon. He said he died but he was a witness on the panel. Nathaniel Solomon came to the tribunal as a witness to establish the death of his brother at the Lekki toll gate.
“The brother’s death was well established with pictures. The compensation was paid to the family. But for the Attorney General to say he was a witness but they said he died; I mean… A mistake could have been made in the name. The Attorney General knows the truth. He knows the truth.”
Ozekhome
“This is just abracadabra from the government. It cannot act as an appellate court over a judicial panel that saw, heard, witnessed and took evidence first hand.
“It has merely danced to the tune of the federal government and reduced the report to thrash.
“I never expected anything better, the panel was created to douse the then raging tension and present the public with a faith accompli and verisimilitude of transparency, accountability and empathy for the public. It merely was designed to whitewash the dirty sepulchre.”
Atoye
“Initially, they said soldiers were not at the toll gate, later they claimed that the soldiers were there but did not shoot. We went from there to saying only one person died. This only shows confusion.
“It is also obvious that the governor is trying to protect his own political ambition and that of [Bola] Tinubu. One thing they should know is that there will be a reward for the activities that happened.”