Some civil society organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria have faulted the white paper on the report submitted by the Lagos State judicial panel on the shooting at the Lekki tollgate and cases of police brutality.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had constituted a four-member committee to come up with a white paper on the panel’s recommendations.

The panel’s report equated ‘the atrocious maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters on 20 October, 2020, to a “massacre” in context’.

However, the white paper committee, headed by the Lagos State Attorney General, Moyosore Onigbanjo, rejected the finding of the panel that nine people were killed at the Lekki tollgate.

The committee, which stated that the panel could not provide contrary proof that only one person died of gunshot wounds, accepted 11 and rejected one out of the 32 recommendations made by the judicial panel.

In its reaction, the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) said that the white paper ‘whitewashed’ the serious human rights violations identified by the judicial panel.

‘The state government’s white paper appears, however, to differ radically from the contents of the report. The serious, egregious violation of rights identified in the report was whitewashed by the government’s white paper’, a PLAC statement read.

Also reacting, the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) described the white paper as an insult to the dead and the sensibilities of victims of the Lekki tollgate shooting of October 2020.

CAPPA also criticised the governor’s proposed Peace Walk.

‘The white paper report is not only disappointing but also exposes how far the Lagos government and its federal collaborators will go to deny a known truth. But Nigerians are not deceived’, the Executive Director of CAPPA, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said in a statement.

For its part, Activism Spaces said, ‘The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has chosen the path of propaganda instead of choosing the path of Justice.

‘It is obvious to all that Lagos State has no plan to combat police brutality and other related human rights abuse carried out by the police and the killing of #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki tollgate by the military.

‘The declaration of a Peace Walk by the government shows how far Governor Sanwo-Olu is set to go to ensure political wins in the face of pains inflicted to Families. This is a dark document on a dark paper, as nothing is white here’.

Photo source: Sophie Bouillon/AFP