Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has assured of the implementation of the recommendations of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for victims of EndSARS related abuses and other matters.
Governor Sanwo-Olu said this during the submission of the report to him on Monday. He also immediately constituted a four-member committee led by the Lagos State attorney-general and commissioner for justice, Moyosore Onigbanjo to raise a white paper on the report of the panel within two weeks.
Other members of the committee are; commissioner for youth and social development, Segun Dawodu; special adviser, works and infrastructures, Aramide Adeyooye and permanent secretary, cabinet office, Tolani Oshodi.
According to Sanwo-Olu, the committee will bring forward a White Paper within the next two weeks to be considered by the Lagos State executive council, pledging that the reports and recommendations will be made public and submitted to the National Economic Council (NEC) for discussion.
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“I am going to constitute a four-member committee immediately, which will be headed by the attorney-general.
The governor said the committee would very quickly, look through and bring forward a white paper within the next two weeks that will be considered at the Lagos State Executive Council and would be gazetted as a white paper coming from the panel of enquiry.”
Sanwo-Olu assured that all the recommendations in the submitted reports would be treated and expressed hope that Lagos State government’s decision on the reports would bring healing, reconciliation and restitution.
“We will ensure that the recommendations that are coming out that will be turn into a white paper will be made available to the public, we will do it appropriately, so that history will judge us well and we will have a document that will stand the test of time, that’s what the tribunal law says, so that it will be properly documented and gazetted in government’s records” he said.
Chairman of the panel, Justice Doris Okuwobi thanked the Lagos State government, all stakeholders who appeared before the panel and the team for uncommon resolve and good team work.
Okuwobi, who disclosed that the panel awarded a total of N410 million to 70 victims of police brutality, said 235 petitions were received with only 14 of it being on the alleged Lekki shooting incident.
“As much as the panel desired to have taken all petitions, the ones that were not taken by the panel were those that did not comply with our rules, so in this report, we made recommendations for a body to take over human rights abuse cases in Lagos State” she said.
The two-volume report was presented to Sanwo-Olu at the Lagos House, Ikeja on Monday by the chairman of the panel. Doris Okuwobi (retired), who disclosed that part of their recommendations include the establishment of a body to take over human rights abuses in Lagos based on the fact that the panel could not hear over 40 petitions submitted to it.
