States’ judicial panels on police brutality and extrajudicial killings will not submit their reports to the Federal Government, according to the Presidency.
Spokesperson to President Muhammadu Buhari, Femi Adesina, stated this on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’.
When asked whether the states would submit the reports to the Federal Government, he said, “Not to the Federal Government. Under the law, Federal Government has no power to en-panel a probe by the states.
“What would happen is that when the state comes up with pronouncements on that panel reports, that would then be of interest to the Federal Government; it is not as if they would bring it to the Federal Government.”
The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and other matters had on Monday, November 15, 2021, submitted a 309-page report to Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
In the leaked report, Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel noted that at least nine persons were confirmed dead at the Lekki toll gate, when soldiers stormed the tollgate to disperse EndSARS protesters on October 20, 2020.
“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 report partly read.
Sanwo-Olu, who received the report, constituted a Committee to bring forward a White Paper within the next two weeks to be considered by the Lagos State Executive Council.
