A civil society organisation, Advocates For Social Justice has warned against any attempt to subvert the truth or undue interference at the Lagos judicial panel of enquiry set up to probe the allegation of brutality by the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
The group’s Executive Director, Mr. Agwu Gabriel Esq at a press conference alleged that a delegation from the Lagos State Government met with some members of Amnesty International in the bid to exonerate the former from October 20 Lekki Toll Gate incident.
There have not been immediate reactions to the allegation by the Lagos state government or Amnesty International.
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The Executive Director said, ”The #EndSARS protests turned violent on the strength of its engineered interventions and campaign of fake news in which it triggered the misplaced outrage about a massacre that never happened.
”To have a sense of how badly Amnesty International lied against Nigeria and its military, Cable News Network (CNN) has walked back its claim of 38 fatalities from the Lekki Toll Gate incident because its report was based on the lies told by the NGO. Nigerians had risen up against the lies prompting the network to recant its flawed reporting.
”Amnesty International lies had been exposed long before CNN was forced to make a volte face. When its Country Director, Osai Ojigho went on Arise TV to continue the offensive against Nigeria but could not provide evidence to support her organization’s claim that the military massacred protesters in Lekki. All she could provide was the lame quip that the military has a tradition of killing people and taking their corpses away, which is another lie that Amnesty International has replicated and elevated to the level of a myth”.
On the proccedings before the Unitd Kingdom Parliament on the Lekki incident in Lagos, Mr. Gabriel described it as a rehash of the proceedings of the Canadian Parliamentary committee, which can best be described as a charade.
”Again, the UK Parliamentary show of shame was brokered by Amnesty International, which possibly still thinks that the Britain can resume being Nigeria’s colonial master if its staff lie enough about human rights abuses allegedly committed by the Nigerian Army or other security agencies.
”This and much more is public knowledge about Amnesty International and the poisonous branding it is carrying out on Nigeria. It is something that right thinking Nigerians have been clamouring to bring an end about. They see the NGO for the monster it is and they have not stopped drawing attention to the danger that this organization poses to the country.
”Unfortunately, Lagos state is neither reading the national mood correctly nor properly evaluating the facts before it. The people around Governor Sanwoolu are apparently still addicted to being inferior in the face of a foreign-based NGO that has the reputation of sowing discord and crisis around the world, one that has made it a permanent goal to bring Nigeria into ruins.
”Interestingly, one of the ways Amnesty International attempts to undermine Nigeria is by casting aspersions on the institutions of the country. It has persistently targeted the military and security establishments with this approach. It has equally added other institutions like the judiciary. Its latest target is logically the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry”, the group said.
