A member of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and Other Matters (otherwise known as #EndSARS Panel), Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN) has said members of the Panel will bear all “sInce the government itself has opened the doors for public scrutiny of the report and the White Papers.
The lawyer in a statement titled: “#EndSARS Panel Report: The Siege is Over” dated 1st December 2021 said the committee that reviewed the reports of the Panel and which produced the White Papers was headed by the Honourable Attorney-General of Lagos State, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN). He said the Attorney-General while being a guest on a TV programme earlier today (1st December) where he took time to discuss the reports of the Panel and the contents of the White Papers that his committee produced gave the impression that the Panel mismanaged funds released to it.
“It has become necessary therefore for me and all other members of the Panel to study the White Papers and make appropriate responses thereto. There will be no holds barred, since the government itself has opened the doors for public scrutiny of the report and the white papers.
“For the records, the Panel relied upon the evidence of witnesses, documents tendered before it and the goodwill of the people of Nigeria, throughout its assignment.
“It is painful for me and the Panel that the government is creating the wrong impression of financial impropriety as a tool of distraction when the Panel had a secretariat that managed all its funds, through the Ministry of Justice.
While pointing out that he was prevailed upon by a good number of his colleagues, friends and admirers to refrain from further public pronouncements on the activities and reports of the Panel since the government was studying the said reports, Mr Adegboruwa said ministers in the cabinet of the Federal Government have not only commented on the said reports but that In some cases called members of the Panel unprintable names and even compared victims of brutality and human rights abuses to goats and taunted their already traumatized families and friends.
Adegboruwa further stated that for the records, the Panel relied upon the evidence of witnesses, documents tendered before it and the goodwill of the people of Nigeria, throughout its assignment.
“Although I served on the Panel free of charge without collecting a dime, I know as a fact that other members served sacrificially, giving up their time, families and careers for a whole year.
“At the appropriate time, we will respond to all the inaccuracies, the coverups and the inconsistencies contained in the White Papers released by the government.
“Assuredly, nothing can ever cover the truth. What happened at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020, was already in the public domain, those who received the bullets knew what happened and the doctors that treated them knew what happened. The Panel reports only confirmed what most Nigerians already knew”.
