The lagos state government has rejected the report of the panel set up to inquire into the SARS related abuse and the alleged shooting at the lekki toll gate which not less than nine persons lost their lives.
The government also rejected the recommendation made by the judicial panel to erect a momentum as a remembrance for the victims whose lives were lost . The state government also counted the Judicial Panel Report, said the panel released 9 names contrary to what prof Obafunwa reported that only three bodies were found and according to the post mortem done, only one of them died of gunshot injury at 7:47pm October 20 2020
Countering the recommendation, the state government said, “This recommendation is not acceptable to Lagos State Government for the following reasons: The finding of the JPI at page 288 paragraph M is that
“The evidence of the pathologist Prof Obafunwa that only 3 of the bodies that they conducted post mortem examination on were from Lekki and only one had gunshot injury and this was not debunked.
We deem it credible as the contrary was not presented before the panel.”. The JPI’s finding of nine deaths is therefore irreconcilable with the evidence of Prof. Obafunwa that only one person died of gunshot wounds at 7:43pm at LTG on
October 21, 2020.
“Having held that there was no evidence before it to the contrary of what Prof Obafunwa said, the question is where did the JPI then get its finding of nine deaths? This finding of nine deaths at LTG on 20th October 2020 is even more baffling because apart from listing out their names in tabular form at pages 297-298, the JPI offered no explanation regarding the circumstances of their death.
“It is quite astonishing that in the list of eleven deaths set out at pages 297-298, two of the names appeared twice (Kolade Salami and Folorunsho Olabisi as Nos. 37 and 38).”
The state government, however, said it would forward the recommendations made by the #EndSARS panel that disciplinary measures should be meted on military officers deployed to disperse protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate, to the Federal Government, National Economic Council and the Nigerian Army.
The Lagos State Government also commended all medical personnel and hospitals, including Reddington Hospital, which treated citizens who suffered injuries during the protest. However it disagreed that the hospitals treated victims of gunshot wounds from LTG on October 20, 2020.
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.”
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had received the report of the panel on November 15, 2021 and said the White Paper would be released in two weeks, which elapsed on November 29, 2021.
Summarily, out of the 32 recommendations made by the judicial panel of inquiry, the government accepted 11, rejected one and accepted six with modifications while 14 recommendations fall outside the powers of Lagos State Government and will be forwarded to the Federal Government for consideration.
