A pro-democracy and human right group, Royal Peoples Platform, RPP, has expressed apprehension over the accuracy of the leaked content of the report of the panel of enquiry set up by the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to look into the #EndSARS protest of October 2020, which led to loss of lives and destruction of properties in the state.
The panel of enquiry, headed by the honourable Justice Doris Okuwobi, was mandated to look into the causes of the crisis and make recommendations that could forestall a repeat in the future.
The panel, on Monday submitted a 309-page report, containing 32 recommendations for the governor to examine and implement.
However, RPP Convener, Prince Dare Aladekoba, in a statement on its behalf, expressed doubt about the accuracy of the content of the report flying around, wondering why the efforts of the distinguished panellists centred majorly on the alleged Lekki Toll Gate ‘massacre,’ as if other victims’ plight was not important!
Recalling that victims of the protest included policemen themselves, corporate outfits, government, innocent individuals and media houses, the statement lamented that “if all these are not included in the report as deserving of mention for rebuke or compensation, the sitting of the panellists was in vain; and they have the money of the tax payers expended on them to refund!”
RPP reminded that the wanton destruction that the Lagos State government suffered in the aftermath of the orotestsy was so enormous that the highly responsive Governor Sanwo-Olu had to contact President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja to assist in rebuilding the state, insisting that if all these were not reflected in the report, it would be a great embarrassment to the governor and a great disappointment to the people of Lagos.
Aladekoba further asserted further in the statement that those security personnel who died or were wounded in the protests, their widows/widowers, their children and dependants, as well as their stations burnt deserve consideration, but, “if all these are missing or not properly addressed, we are keeping our fingers crossed till when the document would be made public.”
The statement therefore urged the governor to be cautious and be vigilant in handling the report without allowing both internal and external interference stampede him into taking hasty steps that would not be in the interest of the people, commending him however for the sense of maturity he has been exhibiting all along.
