EndSARS panel: HURIWA tackles Sanwo-Olu on white paper report

Prominent civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has described the Lagos state’s white paper from the outcome of the year-long Lagos state commission of investigation on #ENDSARS protest as a “rumpled paper, white lies and tissues of falsehoods, political gymnastics.”

HURIWA, in a statement signed by its national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said  the deliberate action of the Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, of editing out the heart and mind of the findings and recommendations of the panel on the #ENDSARS protests shows that, all the while, the setting up of the investigation commission, which gulped millions of tax payers money, was simply for political gimmicks and shadow chasing.

It said: “The so called white paper is a total package of half baked white lies, which were actually manufactured to satisfy the political godfather and the man who singlehandedly railroaded the little known Mr.  Sanwo-Olu into office as governor in 2019.

“We had thought it was mere speculations that the owners of Lekki Toll Gate were connected to the former governor of Lagos state, but with this brazen government’s magic performed by Governor Sanwo-Olu in the open, it is now clear that we were taken for a ride with the setting up of the Lagos panel, whose members nevertheless discharged their mandates honourably, to the chagrin and disapproval of the powers that be in Lagos state.”

HURIWA condemned the Lagos state governor for allowing his political allegiance to the family of the owners of the concessioner Lekki Toll gate linked to the godfather of Lagos state, to taint and manipulate the well thought out recommendations and findings of the judicial panel.

HURIWA said it was laughable that the governor could pick and choose which of the findings of the panel on the number and identities of casualties from the brutal attacks by armed security operatives against protesters on October 20th, 2020 would qualify as being politically correct or not.