The Lagos state government’s judicial panel to look into allegations surrounding crimes committed at the END SARS protest submitted its report, what comes next?
The events surrounding the END SARS protests that took place in October 2020 around the country made for grim reading. With accusations flying around about crimes allegedly committed by supposed agents of the government who are tasked to protect lives and property doing the opposite of that, the government of the day had to look into those accusations and the Lagos state government was one of the few that set up judicial panels to substantiate and verify those accusations for justice to be meted on guilty parties.
The panel took its time to substantiate the claims made before it and verified the ones that it could and it consequently submitted its conclusions to the governor of the state Mr. Babajide Sanwoolu on Monday. This is generally uncharted territory for procedures like this in Nigeria, especially as the report has claimed that crimes were committed by agents of the government that were tasked with putting an end to the protest at the Lekki site of the protests last year.
The youths who were behind the protests were seeking to end instances of police brutality that have continued to be a theme in present-day Nigeria and if the conclusions reached by this state judicial panel is anything to go by were met with the same fate that they were protesting against in the full glare of the public. Names of people who suffered attacks from government agents and the nature of the attacks meted on them were also listed in that report.
READ ALSO: 55-year-old bride claims to have kept her virginity for 62-year-old husband
The next reasonable step is the application of the conclusion of this report. The youths are reasonably watchful of the governor’s next move in delivering justice to the people who suffered the fates acknowledged by the government’s judicial panel. This is uncharted territory for all and the participants will hope that the governor will make good on his promise of ensuring that justice is administered on this issue.
