#EndSARS Judicial Panel Report: CAPPA seeks criminal prosecution

The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has demanded that criminal prosecution should be instituted against individuals found to have committed the massacre that happened on October 20, 2020, at the Lekki Tollgate in Lagos State.

The Director of Programmes of CAPPA, Mr. Philip Jakpor, made the call on Tuesday in Abuja following the findings of the #EndSARS Judicial Panel of Inquiry and Restitution constituted by the Lagos State Government.

• #ENDSARS Panel indicts Army, police, labels Lekki tollgate shooting ‘a massacre’
• #EndSARS: Youths and the future

The panel which sat for over a year submitted its findings to the Lagos government on Monday 15 November 2021.

The report establishes that the Nigeria’s Army led by Lt. Col Bello was at Lekki Gate on 20 October 2020, and further described the event of that day as a “massacre in a context”.

In the 309-page report, the judicial panel confirms the Lekki shooting and goes further to publish the list of victims and casualties of the incident, indicting the Nigerian Army and Police of complicity in the death of protesters at the Lekki Tollgate.

Despite an abundance of evidence which includes testimonials and visuals, the Nigerian government continued to deny that protesters were shot and killed.

The Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed had described the Lekki incident as a “phantom massacre”.

Reacting to the development, CAPPA Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi said: “It is a sad testament for our nation that harmless protesters were mowed down this way while peacefully waving the national flag the military was established to protect. The findings of the Judicial Panel that the Lagos State government received is what we confirmed long ago and documented in our report Lies and the Hail of Bullets.”

Oluwafemi said that in the face of undeniable atrocities perpetrated by Nigerian security forces the Nigerian government and their image makers walked the lonely road of woeful denial.

“What we are now demanding is justice for the victims,” he said.

On Thursday 22 October 2021, CAPPA launched “Lies and the Hail of Bullets: #EndSARS -the story of Lekki shootings by survivors”, an expository account of the events of 20 October 2021, at Lekki tollgate where survivors and victims’ families narrated their ordeals.

Despite denials of the Federal Government, CAPPA invited victims of Lekki shooting and families of deceased protesters, who also gave vivid account of the atrocity, as captured in the report.