Olukoya Ogungbeje, a Lagos-based
lawyer, has filed a N10 billion fundamental rights suit against President Muhammadu
Buhari and Tukur Buratai, chief of army staff, over the shooting of #EndSARS
protesters at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos.
On October 20, men in army
uniform stormed the tollgate where #EndSARS protesters had gathered for 13 days
and dispersed them with gunshots.
The incident triggered widespread
criticism, and although the army had denied shooting at the protesters,
Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos state governor, in an interview with CNN on Monday,
said the CCTV footage at the toll gate shows that the military is responsible
for the shooting.
In the suit filed at the federal
high court in Lagos, Ogungbeje is asking for a declaration that “the brutal
shooting and killing and use of brute force against unarmed, defenceless and
peaceful protesters/Nigerian citizens engaging in the #ENDSARS peaceful protest
on October 20, 2020, at the Lekki tollgate was illegal, unlawful, undemocratic,
oppressive, wicked and unconstitutional.”
According to him, the protesters
were deprived of their “right to life, fair hearing, right to peaceful assembly
and association guaranteed under sections 33, 36, 38, 39 and 40 of the
constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, 1999″.
Ogungbeje is praying the court to
compel the defendants to “immediately pay N10bn compensation to all the victims
of the mindless shooting and brutal killing at Lekki tollgate”.
He is also praying for an order
“compelling the immediate prosecution of all the culpable security agents,
soldiers and persons directly or indirectly or remotely involved in the
dastardly shooting and killing of unarmed, defenceless and peaceful
protesters/victims of the #EndSARS peaceful protests at the Lekki tollgate on
the 20th of October, 2020″.
Aside from Buhari and Buratai,
joined as defendants in the suit are the federal government, the Nigerian army,
chief of defence staff, inspector-general of police, Nigeria police force,
Department of State Services (DSS), director-general of DSS, Lagos state
government, attorney-general of Lagos state, and the attorney-general of the
federation.
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