White Paper faults massacre at Lekki Toll gate, describes Panel Report as ‘contradictory’
Ayodele Olalere
White Paper released on Tuesday night by Lagos State Government has faulted report of Judicial Panel of Inquiry into Police brutality and Lekki shooting, describing the report as full of discrepancies.
The Paper rejected the claim that nine people were killed at the Lekki Toll Gate. The government, through the Paper says the EndSars report was full of ‘discrepancies, irregularities and inaccuracies with claims of deaths of victims. It describes some of the paragraphs in the report as contradictory.
In the EndSars Report, 32 recommendations were made by the Panel, however, the government only accepted 11 and rejected one, agreed on six with modifications., while it promised to forward 14 to the federal government since it falls outside the jurisdiction of the state government to implement.
READ ALSO: http://Senate passes Nursing, Midwifery Act amendment bill, one other
As stated in the White Paper, it accuses the Panel of failure to state the circumstances of the death of nine persons it claimed were killed at the Lekki Toll gate, describing their killings as baffling. It stated their names were only listed by the Panel without explaining how they were killed, and expressed the view they were only included without justification.
“It is quite astonishing that in the list of 11 deaths set on pages 297-298, two of the names appeared twice (Kolade Salam, Folorunsho Olabisi as Nos. 37 and 38). Furthermore, as No. 46 Nathaniel Solomon who testified as a witness and petition the JPI in respect of his brother who he alleged died at LTC, himself listed as having died at LTG on 20th October 2020, Remarkably, Nathaniel Solomon’s deceased brother (Abuta Solomon, was then also listed:as‘No.2 on the list of persons who died at LTG. The only victim of gunshot injury from LTG was picked up at 7:43am, on 21st October 2020 after the curfew commenced (see page 99 Furthermore, there-was no-shred of evidence regarding who shot him.
“Another substantial inconsistency in the JPI Report was the award of compensation to only one out of the alleged nine listed as “deceased” which showed that the JPI itself had doubts as to the death of eight other allegedly deceased persons on its list. See page 304 of the JPI Report,” the White Paper stated
The government also picked hole in the justification for the award of one Serah Ibrahim, saying that she was neither a Petitioner nor a Claimant before the JPI.
READ ALSO: http://Senate probes jail breaks across Nigeria
“The JPI also surprisingly awarded the sum of N10M to one Serah Ibrahim (listed as No. 14 on Page 304 of the Report). Serah Ibrahim was neither a Petitioner nor a Claimant before the JPI. At Page 179 of the Report, Serah Ibrahim testified on oath that she did not have a petition before the Panel; neither did she have any claims for compensation. This award to Serah Ibrahim is also contrary to provisions of Section 13 Tribunal of Inquiry Law 2015 (Cap. T6 La of Lagos State) which preseribes that only witnesses summoned by a Tribunal of Inquiry are entitled to witness fees subject to consent of the Attorney General. Serah Ibrahim did not testify at the request or summons of the Tribunal. See pages 17-18 of the Report for the list of summoned witnesses,” the White Paper added.
The government also based it’s rejection of the Report on the fact that the findings of the Panel were not supported by evidences, which it further described as fundamental inconsistencies.
The White Paper also stated that the Panel in it’s Report corroborated Prof. Obafunwa’s autopsy report that only one person died of gunshot injury at Lekki Toll gate, and wondered how the Panel arrived at the conclusion a massacre occurred.
