The Lagos government on Tuesday said claims by EndSar panel that the Nigeria army committed massacre and war crimes in Lekki on October 20, 2020 are false.
The government position is contained in the whitepaper released to Tuesday. The whitepaper release is sequel to the submission of the report of the panel set up to look into cases of police brutality and the events at Lekki toll gate during EndSar demonstration.
On November 15, the panel submitted two reports — one on police brutality cases and another on the Lekki incident investigation.
The development comes two weeks after a four-member white-paper committee was set up by Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, following the submission of the panel’s report.
In a statement on Tuesday by Gbenga Omotoso, Lagos commissioner for information, the state government said not all the recommendations in the report would be accepted.
The State Government said it would accepts 11 out of the 32 recommendations made by the JPI in its report of 15th November 2021, but it would reject one (1) and accept 6 (six) with modifications.
The document also read in part “Fourteen (14) recommendations fall outside the powers of Lagos State Government and will be forwarded to the Federal Government for consideration.”
Sanwo-Olu At 54: Celebrating A Man On Mission For A Greater Lagos
On the deaths recorded in the judicial panel report, the white-paper committee said the details in the document are insufficient to hold that the victims listed in the panel’s report were killed at the Lekki tollgate.
“This finding of nine (9) deaths at LTG on 20 October is even more baffling because apart from listing out their names in that form at pages 297-298, the JPI offered no explanation regarding circumstances of their death. The names simply sprang up at pages 297-298 of the report without any justification,” the committee said.
“On the basis of the above fundamental inconsistencies in the findings the JPI regarding the nine (9) deaths at LTG, and particularly because the findings are clearly and mainly not supported by evidence before the JPI as attested to by the JPI itself, when it said there was no contrary evidence to that of Prof. Obafunwa that only one person died at LTG of gunshot wounds at LTG on 20th October 2020, the Government is therefore unable to accept the finding that nine people died of gunshot wounds at LTG on 20th October 2020.”
