A member of Lagos State judicial panel on police brutality that Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa Monday said persons he suspected to be working for the government have been threatening him.
“Since the submission of the report of the Lagos #EndSARS Panel, there have been lots of threats and attacks, by those suspected to be agents of the government, upon me, especially in the media,” Adegboruwa said in a statement.
“I have not committed any crime beyond joining other eminent Nigerians with unblemished integrity, to accept the nomination of government on behalf of my constituency, the Nigerian Bar Association and the civil society and the indeed the masses of our people, for a national assignment.”
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said last Monday that he will set up a committee to come up with a white panel on the recommendations of the panel.
“We will ensure that the recommendations that are coming out that will be turned into a white paper and would be made available to the public,” Sanwo-Olu while receiving copies of the report on Monday.
But Adegboruwa said it will be unfair and improper for Lagos State who is a party in the inquiry to review the report of the panel. He said he would release the content of the reports of the panel if Sanwo-Olu failed to keep his promise on the implementation of the panel’s recommendations.
The panel submitted two reports: one on cases of police brutality in the state and another on the killings of anti-police brutality protesters at Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020.
While the state authorities, before the report on the Lekki Toll Gate killings was leaked, have downplayed the number of casualties, Nigeria’s information minister Lai Mohammed described it as a “phantom massacre”.
The panel indicted the Nigerian Army, the police and the Lagos State-owned Lekki Concession Company in the killings of unarmed #EndSARS protesters on the evening of October 20, 2020.
It, in fact, said what the attack by the Nigerian Army and police on the protesters “could in context be described as a massacre.”
Since the submission of the reports, Adegboruwa said “two prominent lawyers of the government have openly incited opinions against me on national television, with mindless accusations.”
He also said one of the eyewitnesses that testified before the panel was attacked on Sunday night in suspected assassination attempt.
“Just last night, one of the prominent EndSARS protesters who testified before the Panel, Miss Kamsiyochukwu Ibe, was attacked and dealt serous machete blows, in what was clearly an attempted murder, as reported by her counsel, with very disturbing photos.”
