By Yusuf Boluwatife
Following the recently-submitted EndSARS report, a battle of words has ensued between the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN), and Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, a member of the Lagos panel constituted to prove the Lekki shootings of October 20, 2020.
BlackBox Nigeria had reported that the EndSARS panel led by Justice Doris Okuwobi submitted a 309-paged report to the Lagos State Governor, stating that there was a massacre at the Lekki toll gate.
The report also noted that at least nine persons were killed by the soliders who stormed the toll gate to disperse the EndSARS protesters.
However, Keyamo has challenged the legality of the report, arguing that the panel does not have the investigative power to look into the activities of federal parastatals or investigate federal government institutions and officials such as the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Police.
Speaking on “Sunday Politics”, a current affairs programme on Channels Television, the minister not only referred to the panel as “illegal” but added that he wasn’t speaking for the Federal government, rather he was stating the obvious.
Keyamo said, “All lawyers who are listening to me should go back and read the Tribunals of Enquiry Act of Lagos State. It says that the governor will have the powers to inquire into the conduct of any person – underline any person – and chieftaincy matters and any other matter that will promote the good of the public.
“However, ‘any person’ there was defined in Section 21 to mean public officers of the state. It is defined to mean somebody within the public service of Lagos State or of the local government as the case may be.
“Then, the phrase was used at the end of Section 1 that says ‘any matter’…that they can inquire into any matter. People now think that to inquire into any matter, it means that you can just be at large.
“However, if you look at Section 21 again, it says that it has to be within the legislative competence of Lagos State. In other words, it is only people over whom the Lagos State has control that they can inquire into their conduct. If you don’t have control over me, you cannot inquire into my conduct.
“Policemen, the Armed Forces, military; they are not under or officers of Lagos State, they are officers of the Federal Government. By virtue of the Constitution, it is only the Federal Government that can control the conduct of policemen and the military. Lagos State cannot be in control; they cannot legislate too, regarding police and military matters; they are on the Exclusive Legislative List.”
Adegboruwa, also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), on the other hand, argued otherwise, explaining that the panel cannot be referred to as illegal because the findings of some of the panels are against the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The lawyer in a statement on Monday said, “The EndSARS Panels were set up at the behest of the Federal Government, through the National Economic Council. In the case of the Lagos Panel, the federal government, through the Nigerian Army, voluntarily submitted itself to the jurisdiction of the Panel, the federal government called witnesses, it tendered documents and it made very lengthy presentations.
“A party cannot approbate and reprobate at the same time. Thus, a party who initiated a process and willingly and actively participated in that process, cannot turn around, after judgment, to plead illegality or absence of jurisdiction, simply because the outcome is unfavourable. We must strengthen our institutions to make them work.
“While we all await the White Paper from the Lagos State Government, it is important for government to build trust in the people in all its dealings and utterances.”
