Activism Spaces has launched a countdown to the submission of a white paper from the report of the Lagos #EndSARS judicial panel’s findings.

The 12-day countdown, which started on 17 November, will end on 29 November, when the white paper is expected to be submitted.

Retired Justice Doris Okwuobi submitted the Lagos State judicial panel’s report on the shooting at Lekki and police brutality cases to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on 15 November, 2021.

The 309-page report equated ‘the atrocious maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters on 20 October, 2020, to a “massacre” in context’.

According to the report, at least 48 protesters were either shot dead, injured with bullet wounds, or assaulted by soldiers who were at the Lekki tollgate.

The governor has constituted a four-member panel, headed by the Lagos State Attorney General, Moyosore Onigbanjo, to produce a white paper in 14 days for the state government to act on.

The Nigerian army had on different occasions denied involvement in the incident despite several accounts of witnesses showing that there were casualties.

In his reaction to the panel’s report, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Lucky Irabor, said, ‘The normal procedure is to have such a report submitted to the convening authority and then there will be a white paper based on which one can make informed comments’.

‘In lieu of this, Activism Spaces is starting a 12 days countdown from today Wednesday, [17] November, 2021, till Monday, [29] November, 2021. It is important that as citizens we hold our leaders to their word and make the word work for the People’, Activism Spaces said in a tweet.

‘We believe the white paper will be released in the next 12 days in the best interest of justice’.

Several civil society organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria had called for the unconditional release of all #EndSARS protesters detained since 2020 following the release of the report.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) also revealed plans to sue the Nigerian government in a bid to compel it to prosecute the soldiers and police officers who shot at unarmed protesters.

Another CSO, Enough is Enough Nigeria (EiE), called for the resignation of the country’s president and the governor of Lagos State over the incident.

Photo source: Lekki Tollgate Lagos