In a damning report released on November 15, the judicial panel of inquiry set up by the Lagos State government to probe the October 20, 2020 EndSARS protests revealed that at least 11 persons were killed during the peaceful demonstration at the Lekki Tollgate and another four missing but presumed dead. The report put the casualties of the Lekki incident at 48. Of the lot, 24 sustained gunshot injuries, while 15 others were assaulted by soldiers and police.

The panel reported another 96 corpses on a list supplied by a forensic pathologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Professor John Obafunwa, adding, that some could have come from the Lekki Toll Gate incident. It described as atrocious, the maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters, while sitting on the floor, waving their Nigerian flags and singing the National Anthem, stressing that the act could be equated to a massacre.

The report is far-reaching. The findings run contrary to the claims by the army and the Federal Government that no life was lost. It is good that the report reflects the thinking of most Nigerians that soldiers killed peaceful protesters and took their bodies away to hide the evidence. We commend the courage exhibited by the chairman of the panel, retired Justice Doris Okuwobi and other members of the team for the timely and thorough job.

We condemn the atrocious actions of the security agents in going against the peaceful demonstrators. Those indicted by the report should be made to face the full wrath of the law. The matter must not be swept under the carpet in the usual Nigerian style.

A thorough and transparent implementation of the recommendations of the report will go a long way in addressing the arbitrariness of the security agents. The committee set up to work out a White Paper on the recommendations of the report should carry out the assignment expeditiously. We commend Lagos State government for not interferring with the work of the panel and being on the side of the people.

The Lagos episode is just one out of the lot. Stories of brutality against the protesters in other parts of the country are legion.  Let other states that set up similar panels come up with their reports. The statement by President Muhammadu Buhari that the Federal Government will allow the system to exhaust itself, and will, therefore, wait for pronouncements from state governments that set up panels to probe police brutality in the country is in order. The protests were spontaneous reactions to years of brutality by the Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). Sadly, the lessons from the protests have not been sufficiently imbibed. The Lagos panel report has recommended measures to remedy the situation. We suggest that the government should muster the will to implement the recommendations.

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Good enough, the United States (US) has sounded a note of warning that the world is looking up to Nigeria to know its next line of action on the report. The description of the report of the EndSARS probe panel as democracy in action by the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is fitting.

This is one report that has elicited commendations from different segments of the society. Lagos State government and the Federal Government should seize the momentum and address all issues arising from the EndSARS protests that led to loss of lives, destruction of individual and public properties across the country.

How the Buhari administration handles the reports on the protests will go a long way in demonstrating its commitment to the rule of law.

Unfortunately, the management of civil protests in Nigeria has been characterised by intimidation and highhandedness of security agents. Prosecuting those indicted in the Lagos panel report and subjecting them to appropriate punishment will serve as a deterrence to other overzealous law enforcement agents.

We agree with the findings of the Lagos panel in equating the highhandedness of the security agents in quelling the protests to massacre. As recommended by the panel, all those involved in the attacks should be made to answer for their actions. Its recommendation that the Federal Government should  publicly apologise to the youths for abruptly undermining the protests is equally instructive. 

However, it should go beyond that. The principal actors of the state, who had played inhuman roles in the assault against the youths, should be given deserved punishment. Above all, let justice prevail.