#EndSARS: US asks Nigerian govt to ensure justice, compensation for victims

The United States has asked the federal and the Lagos State governments to ensure  justice andthe  victims and their families, identified in the report submitted by the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the October #EndSARS protest, are compensated.

The panel chairman, Justice Doris Okuwobi (retd), had submitted the report at the Lagos House, Ikeja, on Monday.

The report identified nine #EndSARS protesters that were killed, adding that security operatives at the scene stopped ambulances from reaching injured protesters.  

Reacting to the content of the report, the US Mission Nigeria in a statement said it was awaiting the response of Lagos State and federal governments on the report. 

It said, “The United States welcomes the conclusion of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry with the transmission of its final report.

“We look forward to the Lagos State Government’s response as part of a process that represents an important mechanism of accountability regarding the #EndSARS protests and the events that took place near the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020.   

“Those events led to serious allegations against some members of the security forces, and we look forward to the Lagos State and federal governments taking suitable measures to address those alleged abuses as well as the grievances of the victims and their families,” the statement read. 

The US position came a day after the panel in its report recommended that President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government should publicly apologise to the youth for using state actors to abruptly undermine the EndSARS protest in 2020. 

The panel indicted the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for seeking the intervention of the army during the protest and accused Lekki Concession Company (LCC) of manipulating the CCTV Video footage of the Lekki Toll Gate, which it tendered before the Panel. 

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