EndSARS White Paper: Posers for Prof. Onigbanjo

By Abolaji Adebayo

Is it true that the Lagos State lacks the authority to issue White Paper on the recommendations of a panel it set up? Is it true that the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry and Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses should not have been set up at all?

These questions are being posed by senior advocates of Nigeria in the wake of the White Papers issued by the Lagos State government on the panel of inquiry it set up to probe the cases of victims of the abuses inflicted on the public by the Nigeria Police Special ANTI-Robbery Squad (SARS) and the Lekki Toll Gate incident.

The questions are for Mr. Moyosore Onigbanjo, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of Lagos State who has the authority to advise the government on the pertinent issues.

Minister of State for Labour  and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Festus Keyamo raised the first poser in an interview with anchor Seun Okinbaloye on Channels Television.

He argued that the law of Lagos State on tribunals and panels of inquiry permitted the state government to probe matters concerning persons in its employment.

According to him, since the police and soldiers are not employed by the State, it should not have set up a panel to probe their roles in the EndSARS protests.

Although the Attorney-General has not addressed the argument, the government seems to allude to it when it referred recommendations of the panel regarding indicted police men and soldiers to the relevant agencies of the Federal Government.

As contained in the White Paper obtained by ECHONEWS, the government stated: “Lagos State Government has no powers to investigate and “fish out” police officers as recommended by the JPI at pages 249-254 of its Report. The State Government will therefore forward the names of police officers listed as Nos. 1, 2, 4, 9, 11, 19, 22, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 41 to the Nigeria Police Force for further investigation and action. Thereafter, the Police should forward the respective casefiles to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Lagos State for action.

“With regards to the police officers listed as No’s. 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 25, 28, 38 & 42 recommended for Prosecution, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Lagos State shall request the casefile from the Nigeria Police Force, while names of police officers listed as No’s. 7, 21 & 27 recommended for sanction and disciplinary action will be forwarded to the Police Service Commission for action.”

But more challenging is the view of a member of the Panel, Mr. Ebun Adegboruwa (SAN) that the law setting up the Panel does not permit the government to issue a white paper.

The argument seems strange because, over the years, the convention has been that the government issues white papers as its opinion on the recommendations of a panel it set up.

 Indeed, until this unprecedented development, the White Paper has always been the last word on the subject of an inquiry on the grounds that the government is authorised to evaluate if the report of a panel it set up has achieved its objectives.

But radical lawyer and rights crusader Ebun Adegboruwa disagrees with the government and has issued a statement against the government’s white paper.

 Adegboruwa, sworn in as a member on 19th October, 2020 by Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is grounding his counter-arguments on the law of Lagos State on tribunals, arguing that it gave the panel some powers beyond the state’s controls.

His words: “There is no provision for the issuance of a White Paper under the law setting up the Panel. Under and by virtue of section 15 of the Tribunal of Inquiry Law, upon conclusion of any inquiry, the Governor is only empowered to issue directive for the enforcement of any decision emanating from the inquiry. The Governor cannot issue a White Paper to overrule the decisions of a Judicial Panel of Inquiry.”

The stage for this legal brick-bats was set on November 15, this year when the panel, chaired by Justice Roseline Okuwobi submitted two sets of reports to the Lagos State Government.

The LASG subsequently released two White Papers on the two Reports of the Panel on November 30, 2021 – White Paper on General Police Brutality Cases (WP1) and White Paper on Lekki Toll Gate Incident (WP2).

In the WP1, the Lagos State Government accepted only four out of 22 recommendations made by the JPI.

It stated that it will forward 18 to the federal government for consideration, staying that three out of the 18 recommendations overlap which the state also accepted.

On some of the recommendations by the JPI on the police matters, the state government said it has no power under the law to implement them but promised to forward them to the appropriate authorities such as the federal government, National Economic Council, National Assembly, Public Service Commission and Nigeria Police Force.

For the panel’s recommendations on the Lekki incidents, especially on the death of protesters, the state government stated that it could not accept some of the findings and recommendations based on illogicality in the findings.

It stated in the White paper: “This recommendation is not acceptable to Lagos State Government for the following reasons: The finding of the JPI at page 288 paragraph M is that “The evidence of the pathologist Prof Obafunwa that only 3 of the bodies that they conducted post mortem examination on were from Lakki and only one had Gunshot injury and this was not debunked. We deem it credible as the contrary was not presented before the panel.” The JPI’s finding of nine (9) deaths is therefore irreconcilable with the evidence of Prof. Obafunwa that only one (1) person died of gunshot wounds at 7:43pm at LTG on 21st October 2020.

“Having held that there was no evidence before not to the contrary of what Prof Obafunwa said. (sic) The question is where did the JPI then get its finding of nine (9) deaths?

“The findings of nine (9) deaths at LTG on 20th October 2020 is even more baffling because apart from listing out their names in tabular form at pages 297-298, the JPI offered no explanation regarding the circumstances of their death. The names simply sprang up at pages 297-298 of the report without any justification.

” On the basis of the above fundamental inconsistencies in the findings of the JPI regarding the nine (9) deaths at the LTG and particularly because the findings are clearly and manifestly not supported by evidence before the JPI as attested Toby the JPI itself, when it said there was no contrary evidence to that of Prof. Obafunwa that only one person died at the LTG of gunshot wounds on 21st October 2020. The State Government is therefore unable to accept the finding that nine (9) people died of gunshot wounds at LTG on 20th October 2020.”

On this presentation, Adegboruwa (SAN), disagrees. His words: “It is important to state from the outset that the panel did not sit on any petition dated 10th October, 2021, contrary to the facts stated on the Cover Page of WP1. Indeed, the panel stopped receiving petitions from the general public from 22nd December 2020.

” 6This is a total misconception of facts from the Committee that reviewed the Reports of the Panel. It is necessary to point out this grave error or misconception, as the case may be, in view of the needless hullabaloo following the minor error of tabular alignments contained in one of the Reports of the Panel, as raised by the LASG.

Another matter that the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice needs to address is Adegboruwa’s contention that the government can not overrule the decisions of a panel it set up.

He had emphasised that there is no provision in the Tribunals of Inquiry Law of Lagos State which permits the Governor to overrule decisions of the panel conducted through open hearing, saying the decisions of the panel were self-executory and compensations were paid to victims upon the success of any petition.

According to him, it is improper for the state government to pick and choose which decision of the panel it would comply with, on the alleged ground that the soldiers/officers involved are outside its statutory control, whereas the same government conveniently paid compensations awarded in respect of police brutality while the police are outside its statutory control.

Adegboruwa said the Lagos State Government provided the funds for compensations in support of the panel’s findings and recommendations.

“Thus, decisions of the Panel on Petitions were self-executory and not subject to review or rejection by the LASG. This was the agreement and modality adopted from the very day of inauguration of the Panel and it is covered by the extant Tribunal of Inquiry Law section 15, under which the Panel was set up,” he reiterated.

On the panel’s findings and recommendations on the Toll Gate incident, Adegboruwa said the assignment of the panel in respect of the Lekki Toll Gate (LTG) Incident of 20th October 2020 was divided into two, being the general investigation and hearing of individual petitions.

He said: “This can be confirmed in paragraph 2.5 of WP2. It is instructive that it is the report of the panel on LTG that has been the source of attack from the government as it accepted and indeed commended the panel on the report on general police brutality, even though both reports emerged from the same process and from the same panel.”

He noted that a total of 13 petitions were received by the panel in respect of the LTG, saying 12 were heard and one was struck out, while the total sum of N237,000,000:00 was awarded by the panel as compensation in respect of the petitions.

He said the state government did not make any comment on the awards, especially those of the individual petitions.

He also pointed some errors and misconceptions in the White Paper.

According to him, WP2 overlooked critical evidence that the panel considered and it also misrepresented the findings and recommendations of the panel in many areas, to suit its narrative, such as Exhibit LLC A, which confirmed that soldiers shot at unarmed peaceful protesters at the LTG on October 20, 2020, the report of the forensic expert, Sentinel, that both live and blank bullets were fired by soldiers, the testimony of many doctors that treated victims of gunshot wounds.