EndSARS: Take responsibility, group tells Lagos Govt… Says

By Chukwudi Nweje
A civil society organisation, Foundation for Peace Professionals has advised the Lagos State Government to take full responsibility of the report of the Judicial Panel on EndSARS regardless of identified discrepancies being highlighted by some interest groups.

In a statement at the weekend, Executive Director of the group, Abdulrazaq Hamzat, said the discrepancies put questions on the integrity of the report, but that they are not enough to disregard the report in it’s entirety.
He said, “We at Foundation for Peace Professionals have carefully listened to the various analysis and opinions advanced by analysts and legal practitioners, pointing out numerous discrepancies in the panel report and admittedly, the discrepancies pointed are heavy, valid and not less seminal. As a matter of fact, we are of the view that indeed, the errors so far identified put the integrity of the report into question, but those errors are not enough to disregard the report in its entirety.”He noted that the state government handpicked all nine
members of the panel, knowing their prejudices and therefore should not try to reject the report based on same suspected prejudices.

He further said, “It is on record that the Lagos State Government invited all members of the panel to participate in the inquiry, knowing their interest, antecedent and alleged prejudice. The government cannot turn around to fault the report based on this premise. It is our view that, by proceeding to nominate them as members of the panel, despite their alleged interest and prejudice, Lagos State Government has committed itself to taking responsibility for the outcome of their report and the government cannot renege on this responsibility.

“Hamzat added though all nine members of the panel were nominated by the government,
they all were unanimous in their findings.He added, “We observed that none of the nine persons on the judicial panel claimed to have a contrary opinion. Other than what is contained in the report and they all assented their signature to the final copy. This means that, all those in the panel, despite being nominated by the Lagos State Government were in agreement with the findings of the panel.”

The group noted that even if the panel’s report is not perfect, that the members should be given a chance to reconcile the discrepancies rather than the government trying to wish the report away.”It is important to note that, while we understand that the report may not be perfect as being pointed out by different analysts, we are of the view that the errors identified in the report will not make it less seminal, neither can those error s be enough justification to wish away the findings.
The panel should be given opportunity to reconcile the errors and provide justification for them” the group said.