New Nigeria Network in conjunction with #EndSARSUnited, a coalition of #EndSARS groups, on Monday has asked for the resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State over the killings that occurred on October 20, 2020, at the Lekki tollgate.
The group put the blame of the Lekki massacre on President Buhari, saying the military personnel who carried out the act could not have acted without clearance from the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
Sanwo-Olu was asked to resign for his indictment in the EndSARS report by the panel.
In a statement jointly signed during a world press conference in Ikeja GRA, Lagos, by Adesina Ogunlana, a lead counsel to #EndSARS protesters before the Lagos State Judicial Panel on Inquiry and Restitution for Victims of SARS Abuses and Other Related Matters, Chairman; Gbenga Komolafe, Co-Convener, Coalition for Revolution (CORE); Juwon Sanyaolu, National Coordinator, Take It Back Movement and Ayo Ademiluyi, the Co-Counsel to #EndSARS Protesters, Secretary of Radical Agenda Movement in the Nigerian Bar Association (RAMINBA) and Co-Secretary, New Nigeria Network.
They hummed on the decision of Governor Sanwo-Olu to include the Attorney General of Lagos State and Commissioner of Justice, Moyosore Onigbanjo.
According to the statement, Onigbajo was “confirmed by the testimony of the Representative of the Lagos State Government, Muri Okunola, the Head of Service to have attended the Lagos State Security Council of 19th October 2021, where the most senior military officer in Lagos State was set in motion by the Resolution of the Council to contain “law and order” turn around to be the Chair of the White Paper Committee?
“To what extent, if any, does the Governor still have the moral authority to appoint and set up a White Paper Committee?
“Our answers to the above questions is to the effect that it stands against the principle of natural justice for the Governor to sit as a judge over his own case, with the indictment made by the Panel Report.”
The groups told the Lagos State Government to call its advocates and “apologists” to order saying “the form and content of what the White Paper would contain are already being reflected in the utterances and speeches of its advocates and apologists.”
“The duo of Messers Abiodun Owonikoko SAN and Olukayode Enitan, Counsel to Lagos State Government before the Panel in separate interviews with Arise TV News Channel and Channels TV has claimed that there are “40 errors” in the Report.
“While Lagos State Government is calling for restraints, it cannot set loose its hunting dogs. We do not need to remind the Lagos State Government that the Panel of Inquiry was constituted by the Lagos State Government itself and have on the Panel as members, serving civil servants and Board representatives of the same Government.”
They, however, called the attention of the Nigerian Bar Association and particularly the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (LPPC) to the conduct of the duo of Messers Owoniko SAN and Enitan SAN.
