Farotimi, who was nominated among activists to walk for peace with the governor, says he won’t walk with murderers
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Two activists and lawyers, Dele Farotimi and Adeyinka Olumide Fusika have picked several holes in the Lagos government White Paper on the report of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry on EndSARS.
The duo appeared as guests on Arise Television NewsDay programme to react to the White Paper which the Lagos State Government released last night.
The Attorney General of Lagos State, Moyosore Onigbanjo, a senior advocate of Nigeria, had earlier appeared on the breakfast show of Arise Television to point out alleged inconsistencies in the report of the panel on the shooting of peaceful protesters at Lekki.
He said the testimony of the key witness of the panel, the Chief Pathologist of Lagos State, Professor John Obafunwa, contradicted the panel’s report when he said of the three bodies picked up at Lekki, only one died of gunshot injuries.
The Lagos Attorney then wondered how the panel came up with a list of nine people killed at Lekki.
Onigbanjo also wondered how one Solomon Nathaniel ended up as a witness and as one of the nine persons killed at Lekki on the night of October 20, 2020.
But the two lawyers said the Attorney General was playing games with the fact.
They contextualized all the cases the Attorney General claimed were inconsistencies.
Here is a transcript of the interview.
Farotimi
I will remind you that there are close to 300 people still in Kirikiri arrested in the immediate aftermath of the EndSARS protest indiscriminately across the length and breadth of Lagos. There is one particular one, he had two appearances before judges of the Lagos State High Court who refused to release him because they were awaiting the DPP’s advice. The DPP advice came out after a year that this boy has been languishing in Kirikiri. I am on record. It came out and said that the best they could do was to charge the boy with an infraction of the curfew order which would have had him spend a month in Kirikiri. It took a magistrate to give the boy bail maybe about a week or two ago.
There are others still there, and he wants to go walkies. Walk for what exactly? So, we should join him in his fig leaf operation. We never went before the tribunal in search of the truth, we already knew the truth. It was the government that required the Public Relations exercise and a time-buying device and then set up the panel. It sets up the panel believing that it could manipulate the panel. Remember, there were eight men and women on that panel. A retired DIG was on that panel. I believe a director in the State civil service was on that panel. It came out with a unanimous report, no minority report.
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Fusika
The tribunal was set up under the Tribunal and Judicial Inquiry law of Lagos State. There is no provision in that law for the governor to set up a White Paper committee. Look, what he has done is simple. Everything he wrote in that White Paper, that was what he sent the head of the service to tell the panel. The head of the service was his witness, the witness that testified on behalf of the Lagos State government. He has now gone back to tell his story and call it a White Paper. I don’t understand.
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. Professor Obafunwa’s testimony…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.
The panel took that up and said come and explain these 99 bodies. That was why Professor Obafunwa was invited. The Effort Professor of Obafunwa as the Chief pathologist… didn’t go about picking up bodies. He only came there to say the bodies that we have here is 99 bodies, adding that the documents they gave him say three came from Lekki Tollgate. Professor Obafunwa ‘s testimony is not the only testimony on the panel. The panel did not base its decision only on Professor Obafunwa’s testimony. All the government tried to do was to say the bodies in the mortuary were not from Lekki. They were from Ikorodu, Obalende, Gudugba etc, and they categorized most of them as hoodlums. The reason they were killed was that they were hoodlums. And once you categorise a Nigerian as hoodlums, he is not entitled to any due regard. So, that is what Obafunwa’s testimony was about.
Farotimi
We are in a situation where Nigeria and its ruling class have to decide whether they want to become extinct or whether they want to embrace the inevitable change. I said years ago that the magic bullet by which you might kill the Nigerian monster is the truth. And that is what is happening. Nigeria is at a reflection point. I sat down in this studio over a year ago and I told all of you that I tripled dared them to allow that panel to sit. They dared. I’m happy about that. What they have done is that they have created a situation now where the Nigerian State will have to answer a fundamental question. It is either a democracy or is a fascist state. If it is a democracy, Jide Sanwo-Olu and his sponsors in Lagos State will pay a price for what they have done. It is not by accident that immediate aftermath of the release of that report, Kamsi was attacked. Kamsi was one of those who gave testimonies before the panel. Her attackers were explicit in telling her why they wanted to kill her because you cannot call that a mere assault. They slashed her with a cutlass. Three men attacking a single woman at Sangotedo bustop in the evening. So, the Nigerian State and its rulers have to decide how far they are prepared to go in pursuit of the embrace of lies they are seeking to cover.
Interestingly, the more they tried to cover it up, the more stupid they sound. Otherwise intelligent human beings begin to sound stupid when they embrace the lies of Lekki. So, as far as I’m concerned, they can bring their Black Paper and call it White, it doesn’t make any difference to the truth. Sufficient lies have been told to paint a graphic picture of the truth. So, we already know what happened. They are the ones that need to decide whether they want to embrace the truth, accept responsivity for their actions and inactions.
Fusika
The Attorney General 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 tollgate. 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.
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 opened 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.
We are the ones that appear not to have any respect for human lives. So, because Obafunwa says 99 people died and only three came from Lekki. What do we mean only? These are somebody’s children, somebody’s father, mother. Look at the other day, Hakeem Odumosu came to say the girl killed at Ojota was planted there, that the corpse was not fresh. Can you beat that? Later, the same girl that was said to have been planted there, the same Lagos government was busy renting apartment for them for two years, giving them N1 million or something for the life of a human being. We have no respect whatsoever for human life and it is unfortunate.