Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), one of
the members of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for
Victims of SARS Related Abuses and other matters, has raised the alarm over the
alleged plan to take his life following the report by the panel that protesters
were killed at the Lekki toll gate on October 20, 2020.
Adegboruwa raised the alarm in a
statement on Monday titled, ‘Nigerians Should Hold Government Responsible If
Anything Happens To Me’.
Recall that the Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel submitted its report to the Lagos
State Government, noting that at least nine persons were confirmed dead at the
Lekki toll plaza when soldiers stormed the tollgate to disperse EndSARS
protesters on October 20, 2020.
The 309-page report stated, “The atrocious maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters while sitting on the floor and waving their Nigerian flags and while singing the National Anthem can be equated to a massacre in context.”
Lagos State Governor, Babajide
Sanwo-Olu, who received the report last Monday, constituted a Committee to
bring forward a White Paper within the next two weeks to be considered by the
Lagos State Executive Council.
Many Nigerians have been outraged
by the panel’s report which is at variance with the consistent claim by the
government that there was no “massacre” at the toll gate, a focal gathering
point during last year’s nationwide demonstration against extrajudicial
killings and police brutality by operatives of the now-defunct Special
Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force.
But Adegboruwa, who represented
the civil society organisation on the panel, said members of the panel are
being unfairly persecuted by some state government officials.
He wrote, “Since the submission
of the report of the Lagos #EndSARS Panel, there have been lots of threats and
attacks, by those suspected to be agents of the government, upon me, especially
in the media.
“I have not committed any crime
beyond joining other eminent Nigerians with unblemished integrity, to accept
the nomination of government on behalf of my constituency, the Nigerian Bar
Association and the civil society and the indeed the masses of our people, for
a national assignment.
“Two prominent lawyers of the
government have openly incited opinions against me on national television, with
mindless accusations.
I have however refused to be
intimidated or bend to the tactics of government to be silenced.
“I urge the good people of
Nigeria, my professional colleagues in the Nigerian Bar Association, my
comrades in the civil rights movement and the people of Nigeria, to hold
government responsible should anything happen to me.
“Just last night, one of the
prominent EndSARS protesters who testified before the Panel, Miss Kamsiyochukwu
Ibe, was attacked and dealt serious machete blows, in what was clearly an
attempted murder, as reported by her counsel, with very disturbing photos.
“I heeded the clarion call to
serve by the government with the honest believe that the Panel was meant to say
the truth and nothing but the truth, which is what we have done. It is left for
government and Nigerians to do the needful with the report of the Panel.”
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