The governor of Lagos State, Governor Sanwo-Olu said the panel would release its report of the End-sars inquiry on White paper.
The governor in a speech on Tuesday on the lekki shooting that happened on October 20 2020 said “As an administration, we are determined that the next steps that will be taken in this process of coming to terms with the events of October 2020, must bring closure to a painful episode in the history of our state, with the release of the White Paper later today.”
A White Paper is an administrative medium for conveying the decision or position of the government on the report of an administrative or judicial enquiry.
Following the uproar that arised during the protest, the governor set up a panel to look into the matter.
After one year of taking testimonies, receiving evidence and awarding compensations, the eight-man Lagos EndSARS panel submitted a 309-page report on Monday, November 15, 2021, with shocking revelations which indicted members of the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force.
The panel listed 48 names as casualties out of which 22 protesters sustained gunshot injuries, while 15 others were assaulted by soldiers and the police.
It listed the names of the deceased as Victor Sunday Ibanga, Abuta Solomon, Jide, Olalekan Abideen Ashafa, Olamilekan Ajasa, Kolade Salami, Folorunsho Olabisi, Kenechukwu Ugoh and Nathaniel Solomon. The report also listed Abiodun Adesanya, Ifeanyi Nicholas Eji, Tola and Wisdom as “presumed dead.”
It 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.”
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on November 18, 2021, had told United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who was recently on an official visit to Nigeria that the Federal Government was waiting on Lagos State and other state governments to come up with their conclusions.
Days after, the Minister for information and Minister of state and labour tagged the report illegal and called it “tales by moonlight”
But speaking on Tuesday, Sanwo-Olu said his administration has “sincere commitment to uncovering the truth” about the Lekki shootings of October 20, 2020, adding that “no member of the panel can claim that the state government made any attempt to influence them in any way throughout the duration of its sitting.”
“While I commend the panel for undertaking its task to the best of its abilities, it is however regrettable that the panel’s work and the leakage of an unauthorized version of the report have generated much tension. Sadly, a deep wound has been reopened.”
As I have stated earlier, we have no intention to engage in histrionics or further inflame passion on a matter that has generated intense interest and controversy nationally and internationally. Our decisions and actions will be based entirely on the law, the weight of evidence and an unblemished respect for the truth,” the governor added.
He also invited some known faces of the EndSARS protest to a peace walk for “the healing of Lagos”.
Specifically, the governor invited Folarin Falana (Falz), Debo Adebayo (Mr. Marcaroni), Dele Farotimi, Temitope Majekodunmi, Segun Awosanya (Segalinks), Adedotun (Just Detoun), Seun Kuti, Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu and Commander of Rapid Response Squad (RRS), CSP Yinka Egbeyemi and others to join him in the “historic march for our dear Lagos.”
