Being the text of the state of the Nation Press Conference held by the New Nigeria Network at the New Nigeria Network Secretariat, 185, Ikorodu Road, Palmgrove, Lagos today, Thursday, 1st July, 2021.
SALUTATIONS:
We welcome members of our organisation present to this Press Conference. More heartily do welcome the crew of the Press here, summoned as it were at relative short notice to help in the salient fact that #EndSARS protesters in Lagos, particularly those being championed at the Lagos State Judicial Panel on Restitution for Victims of SARS-Related Abuses and Other Related Matters by the New Nigeria Network and the Radical Agenda Movement in the Nigerian Bar Association, RAMINBA as being represented by the WINNERS DON'T QUIT CHAMBERS will not countenance any intent on the part of the Lagos State Government or the Lagos State Judicial Panel on Restitution for Victims of SARS-Related Abuses and Other Related Matters to maintain July 19, 2021 as the expiration date of the said Panel.
The reasons for this RESOLVE is comprehensively stated in the letter of the legal representatives of the Concerned #EndSARS PROTESTERS to both the Governor of Lagos State and the Honourable Attorney General of Lagos State.
The letter will form the text of this Press Conference:
"29th June, 2021.
The Governor,
Lagos State,
Governor’s Office,
Lagos House,
Alausa,
Ikeja.
Dear Sir,
PETITION FOR ADEQUATE EXTENSION OF TIME OF TENURE OF THE LAGOS STATE JUDICIAL PANEL ON RESTITUTION FOR VICTIMS OF SARS-RELATED ABUSES AND OTHER MATTERS FROM JULY 19TH , 2021 TO AT LEAST 19TH JANUARY, 2022.
We act as Counsel to certain #EndSARS protesters who participated in the #ENDSARS PROTESTS of October 2020, at the point known as LEKKI TOLL GATE along the Lagos-Epe Express way and are maintaining petitions before the said Panel since November 2020.
These Petitioners are:
1. Victoria Oniru
2. Dabira Adebayo Ayuku
3. Kamsiyochukwu Perpetual Ibeh
4. Samuel Isah
5. Nicholas Okpe
6. Ukala Patrick Ayide
7. Joshua Samuel
8. Olalekan Faleye
9. Nathaniel Solomon
10. Nnatah Stanley Chimezie
11. Edwin Augustine
12. Ajumobi Olajide
13. Damilola Adedayo
14. Yakub Sodiq
15. Damilola Adeniyi
16. Ayoola Yusuf
Our Chambers are also the legal representatives of five other petitioners of specific SARS-related abuses to wit:
1. Nathaniel Oluwaseyi;
2. Segun Adekoya;
3. Seun Bamgbose;
4. Jude Balogun and Funmi Ayedungbe before the same Panel.
In all, we have 20 (twenty) petitions before the Panel. However, we regret to inform you that such as been the heavy press of work of the Honourable Tribunal that out of the 16 petitions related to the LEKKI SHOOTING INCIDENT of 20th October 2021, only 5 (five) of the Petitioners; Dabira Adebayo, Kamsiyochukwu Perpetual Ibeh, Nicholas Okpe, Ukala Patrick Ayide and Damilola Adedayo have had the opportunity to present their testimonies before the Panel while only 2 (two) out of the 5 (five) have been cross-examined and while it is only just 1 (one) petitioner, Nicholas Okpe out of the five who had appeared before the Panel that has had his case closed. This reality rules out the presence of our Address on any of these matters before the Panel even as at today.
In the second batch of our cases with the Panel involving 4 (four) Petitioners, as earlier stated, none of them has been invited to appear before the PANEL since the submission of their Petitions more than six months ago.
For more than 3 (three) weeks now, we have observed that the Panel is under a strong self-pressure to get through her proceedings. We would not know the situation of other petitioners and other Counsel but we know for certain that by the statistics we have given earlier to the effect that only 1 (one) petition out of 20 petitions from our chambers has been fully treated while only 4 (four) were partially heard, with a whooping 16 untouched, it means that less than seven percent of our petitions and grievances has been touched by the Panel. If in the event that our case is not an isolated one or a case of identity victimization, it stands to reason that quite a lot of other petitions, probably more than a hundred have suffered similar neglect.
Now, apart from the individual petitions of our clients as regards the LEKKI SHOOTING, how far can it be said that the Panel has gone with the investigation of the horrendous incident of 20th October, 2020 at the Lekki Toll Gate.
In our respectful view, the Panel has not gone beyond the 40 percent mark of the achievement of the task. This is because as at today, 29th June, 2021, the following are part of the realities outstanding:
i. The evidence of a Principal Witness, Professor Obafunwa, the Pathology expert from Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) is not concluded.
ii. The crucial report of the Forensic Expert engaged by the Panel has not even been presented, less talk of being subjected to the crucible of diverse cross-examinations.
iii. Only four out of the twelve persons our Chambers applied to the Panel to be summoned have appeared before the Judicial Panel, to wit Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu (represented by Mr. H. Muri-Okunola, Head of Service Lagos State), Chief Medical Director; Reddington Hospital Lekki, Chief Medical Director; Glandville Hospital, Chief Pathologist, LASUTH (as represented by Prof. Obafunwa) while the other 8 (eight) including Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) Minister of Works, Seyi Tinubu of the Loatsad Promo Media Ltd, Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Maroko Police Station, Maroko, Lagos have not appeared, that is assuming they have been summoned at all by the Panel at all.
iv. Significantly, a set of our petitions already scheduled to be heard today, 29th June, 2021 was at the last minute adjourned suo motu by the Panel to 9th July, which would be ten days to the scheduled expiration of the tenure of the Panel.
How then, we enquire, can the Tribunal be expected to finish its onerous task and do justice by 19th July, 2021 as has been scheduled by Government? 19th July, 2021 is a mere 20 days away from today.
We wish to put it on record that when we raised our concerns publicly before the Panel, about two weeks ago about the utter impracticality of the Panel ending its work, in the middle of nowhere, as it were on the 19th July, 2021, the Panel expressed its helplessness in extending its tenure being a mere creation of Government and counseling our grievances to its Creator, the Lagos State Government.
May we say categorically that the path of honour, decency and genuine, accountable social responsibility on the part of your Government is to effectuate an extension of the tenure of the Panel which you have set up reasonably with outlined, set objectives. We demand a six month extension in the least from 19th July, 2021 to 19th January, 2022.
Sir, as you are much aware, Lagos State #EndSARS Panel is the only one among its contemporaries in other states of the Federation, double decked in responsibility. Unlike its contemporaries, saddled with only looking into the issues of SARS-Related Abuses, the Lagos Panel is saddled with also looking into the extremely tragic but euphemistically coined LEKKI SHOOTING of 20th October, 2020, aside SARS-Related Abuses. We must not forget that Lagos is the hub of the nation and it is the most populated state and so naturally, the Panel has the largest number of cases to deal with.
We are participants in the Proceedings at the Lagos Panel out of an over-abundance of caution and wariness, amidst widespread public concerns that our participation would be exploited and rubbished by your Government, which is believed to have set up the Panel not out of any genuine love and regard for humanity and social justice but for mere reasons of POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY just to douse tension and distract critics of the Government in its palpable role in the sorry saga where the forces of coercion of the state were used freely on innocent youths of the country in their large numbers on 20th October 2020 at the Lekki Toll Gate, under your watch.
May we state further that in our humble view, our petition is a DEMAND, very proper in all ramifications, reasonable, logical and JUST. We are not begging or pleading that your government do the right by causing the much needed extension of the tenure of the Panel.
Sir, kindly take notice that in the event within 7 days of the receipt of our letter, if your Government fails, refuses or otherwise neglects to give an open and public assurance of an acceptation of our just demands for the wholesome extension of the tenure of the PANEL, we shall withdraw further participation at the Panel.
In our considered view, doing otherwise would be tantamount as unforgivable, inequitable, conspiratorial cooperation with a system scripted to draw blinkards over the eyes of JUSTICE and white wash the bloody, horrible ignobility of 20th October, 2020 at the Lekki Toll Gate. GOD FORBID.
We shall not be corralled, coaxed and coerced into cooperating with any surreptitious undermining of social justice in the matters of investigation of the Lekki Massacre as well as SARS-Related Abuses.
We end this petition by stating that if we are forced to withdraw from further participation at the PANEL for reasons afore, our confident assurance is that HISTORY WILL ABSOLVE US.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Adesina Ogunlana.
Ayodele Ademiluyi.
CC:
1. The Attorney General of Lagos State,
Lagos State Ministry of Justice,
Lagos State Government Secretariat,
Alausa,
Ikeja.
2. The Chairman,
Lagos State Judicial Panel on Restitution for Victims of SARS- Related Abuses and Other Matters,
Lagos Court of Arbitration, 1A, Remi Olowude Street, Maruwa, Lekki.
3. The President,
Nigerian Bar Association,
NBA House,
Abuja,
Federal Capital Territory.
4. The Chairman,
Radical Agenda Movement in the Nigerian Bar Association(RAMINBA)."
Thank you for listening.
ADESINA OGUNLANA
Co-Convener.
JUWON SANYAOLU
Co-Convener.
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