On Monday 15th November 2021, the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and Other Matters (JPI), headed by Justice Doris Okuwobi (retd), submitted its report to the Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu. While receiving the report, Sanwo-Olu had said that he hoped the report would be the beginning of the “difficult process of proper reconciliation and restitution”. He promptly set up a committee, headed by Moyosore Onigbanjo SAN, the Lagos State Attorney-General, to produce a White Paper within two weeks.
But rather than the reconciliation the Governor had hoped for, the report has divided Nigerians even more sharply than before. The 309-page report claims to have found that officers of the Nigerian Army had stormed the Lekki Toll Gate (LTG) on the night of October 20, 2020 during which they shot dead, injured with bullet wounds, or assaulted a total of 48#EndSARS protesters in a bid to disperse them. Nine protesters, the report said, were confirmed dead, 20 sustained gunshot injuries, while 13 others were assaulted by the military. The report therefore concluded that the manner of the “killings” constituted a “massacre in context”.
In a swit reaction, however, the federal government, through the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed described the report as a “triumph of fake news”, adding that “never in the history of any judicial panel in this country has its report been riddled with so many errors, inconsistencies, discrepancies”.
Mohammed raised no less than ten serious questions of fact and evidence in the report, and concluded that the federal government “reject the notion that our soldiers and policemen massacred innocent Nigerians at Lekki on October 20, 2020. That conclusion is not supported by the weight of available evidence. Indictment for murder is a very serious issue that cannot be done on the basis of allegations and corroborations, as the panel did. Such allegations must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The report in circulation is calculated to embarrass the Federal Government and its agencies without foolproof evidence”.
If this was not scathing enough a rebuke, the Lagos State Government’s own White Paper, released last Tuesday, rejected the panel’s report, saying that “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 finding and conclusions thereupon totally unreliable and therefore, unacceptable.”
The 36-page White Paper poked even more holes in the panel’s report, and noted, among other damning comments, that “the findings of JPI that nine (9) people died at the LTG on 20th October 2020 from gunshots fired by the military are based on assumptions and speculations that are clearly and manifestly not supported by the evidence before the JPI”. The White Paper then concluded that “it also follows that the irresistible conclusion 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 21st October 2020 is that there was no massacre at LTG, contextual or otherwise”.
Given the weight of the easily verifiable inconsistencies and contradictions in the Lekki Panel Report, and the weight of criticisms against it, we stand by our earlier position that all evidence so far points to the conclusion that no massacre took place at the Lekki Toll Gate during the EndSARS protests last year. We note, furthermore, with considerable dismay, that never has the report of a judicial panel been so thoroughly discredited by the very government that set it up.
Governments in Nigeria are known for routinely sweeping the reports of inquires under the carpet. But it is rare for a government to so forcefully discredit and reject, with supporting evidence, the report of a panel it set up by itself as the Lagos State Government has done. This can only mean that the panelists did a shoddy job, which, in turn, raises even more serious questions.
First, the rejection of the report as “totally unreliable” by the Lagos State Government casts a serious dent on the integrity of the panel and its members. Justice Doris Okuwobi is a retired judge of the Lagos State High Court and a former Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary in the Lagos State Ministry of Justice. Other members of the panel include Taiwo Lakanu, a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police, Ebun Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), as well as representatives of civil society and youths.
How could a panel of such eminent persons in law enforcement produce a report that cannot stand even the barest of scrutiny on so serious a matter as allegations of a massacre? We insist that the panelists must defend their integrity by refuting the claims of the White Paper and of the federal government or by providing unassailable evidence of their conclusions. Failing that will forever cast shadows on the professional and personal integrity of the panelists, and not just for their work on this judicial panel, but for the entirety of their professional careers.
Second, the White Paper raises the question of whether the panel lied to Nigerians or were swayed by the mood of the moment. An indictment of the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force for massacre cannot be taken lightly. We certainly do not take it lightly. It is a serious matter for which Nigeria must know the truth of whatever happened, and just for bringing closure on the matter for today, but for posterity.
This is why the federal government must institute a Truth Commission to get to the bottom of it all. Nigerians, and people around the world, know who between the Lagos State Government and its own Judicial Panel on EndSARS is being economical with the truth. This state of confusion must not linger. An independent Truth Commission would provide the panel an opportunity to prove beyond reasonable doubt that there was a massacre, of any kind, at the Lekki Toll Gate last year. Above all, it will help Nigerians and the world to put this matter to rest once and for all.
Daily Trust Editorial of December 5, 2021