The Lagos Judiciary Panel of Inquiry and Restitution has submitted reports on the Lekki Toll Gate shooting incident, Police brutality, and human rights violations to the State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for implementation.
Sanwo-Olu, who received the report from the panel at the Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja, the State capital, on Monday, vowed to treat the report appropriately.
The panel was led by a retired Judge, Doris Okuwobi, who submitted the report at the Governor’s office, Ikeja.
The report was submitted one month after the panel concluded its year-long sittings to investigate and compensate victims of Police brutality in the state.
The #EndSARS protests in October 2020 necessitated the setting up of panels across States of the Federation in order to probe the excesses of the Police against the citizenry, especially the youths.
The Lagos panel was also saddled with the responsibility of probing the reported October 20, 2020, shooting of unarmed protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate.
The Governor, while receiving the report, at the presentation ceremony, constituted a Four-Man Committee, led by the State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN).
The Committee is to prepare a White Paper for the purpose of implementing the findings and recommendations contained in the report, give it a legal backing, and send the report to the National Economic Council for implementation.
Sanwo-Olu said: “The committee will very quickly, look through and bring forward a white paper within the next two weeks that will be considered at the Lagos State Executive Council and would be gazetted as a white paper coming from the panel of enquiry.
“We will ensure that the recommendations that are coming out that will be turn into a white paper will be made available to the public, we will do it appropriately, so that history will judge us well and we will have a document that will stand the test of time, that’s what the tribunal law says, so that it will be properly documented and gazetted in government’s records. We hope the report would bring healing, reconciliation and restitution.”
Earlier, the Chairman of the Panel, Justice Okuwobi, thanked the State Government and all the stakeholders who appeared before the panel, and the team for working towards the success of the panel.
The Chairman revealed that the panel awarded a total of N410 million to 70 victims of Police brutality.
She added that out of 235 petitions received, only 14 were on the alleged Lekki shooting incident.
