Prime Business Africa EditorialNigerians who awaited federal government’s response to the report on police brutality and the Lekki Toll Gate Incident, have indeed, been served a response, albeit a most shocking one.
The latest of such came Sunday night from Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo. Speaking on Channel Television’s Sunday Night Politics, Keyamo joined the propaganda train, saying that all panels set up by States to investigate the allegations of shootings during the #EndSARS protest were illegal.
Thankfully, he has since been replied, in fact, corrected. Monday Ubani, Chairman of NBA’s Section of Public Interest and Development Law (NBA-SPIDEL) has promptly reminded Keyamo that the National Economic Council on October 15, 2020, resolved to mandate state governors to set up panels of inquiry across the country. Interestingly, if not playfully, Keyamo also said he was speaking as a lawyer, not as a minister. Would he be right as a lawyer, and wrong as a minister? Or would his error be more tolerable, and impliedly more easily linkable to his principals if he spoke as a minister? In all, the trail of denials and spin are quite unnerving, considering the weight of evidence to the contrary.
READ ALSO: Editorial: The Panel Report On Lekki Shooting And Nigerian Government’s Continuing Propaganda
Recall that Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed, who spoke on Tuesday, November 23, 2021, repudiated the report of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry stating that it was riddled with “errors, inconsistencies, discrepancies, speculations, innuendoes, omissions and conclusions that are not supported by evidence.”
The minister, who has consistently denied the Lekki shootings, simply reaffirmed his long-standing position on the controversy.
Notwithstanding the abundance of facts and evidence existing in the public domain and corroborated by the panel report which proves to the contrary that indeed, the Nigerian Army and police shot at unarmed protesters bearing the Nigerian flag and singing the national anthem, Lai Mohammed and the federal government have relentlessly denied the occurrence.
According to the minister, “Without mincing words, let me say that never in the history of any Judicial Panel in this country has its report been riddled with so many errors, inconsistencies, discrepancies, speculations, innuendoes, omissions, and conclusions that are not supported by evidence. What is circulating in public space is simply a rehash of the unverified fake news that has been playing on social media since the incident of October 20, 2020.
“It is simply incredible that a Judicial Panel set up to investigate an incident has submitted a report laden with allegations, the same allegations it was set up to investigate in the first instance. Instead of sitting for all of one year, the panel could have just compiled social media ‘tales by the moonlight’ on the incident and submitted, saving taxpayers’ funds and everyone’s time. That report is nothing but the triumph of fake news and the intimidation of a silent majority by a vociferous lynch mob.”
Given the severity of the issue, one may wonder what Lai Mohammed means by a “silent majority.” Who this “silent majority” is and why they have chosen silence in the face of murder or the allegations of it as the minister argues.
Echoing the thought of the Nigerian Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Lucky Irabor, who had earlier criticised the manner in which the report was leaked to the general public Lai Mohammed again brought up the issue of a White Paper and its significance in any verdict.
“The cowardly leakage of an unsigned report to the public is not enough. Assuming the report in circulation bears any iota of genuineness, it is basic knowledge that the report of such a panel is of no force until the convening authority issues a White Paper and Gazette on it. It is therefore too premature for any person or entity to seek to castigate the Federal Government and its agencies or officials based on such an unofficial and unvalidated report,” he said.
Nigerians who had expected an apology from the minister and the federal government and possibly a resignation letter must have underestimated the conscience or the lack thereof of those in denial. Does the issuance of a White Paper and Gazette by the convening authorities invalidate the findings of the Judicial Panel?
The reference to the inappropriateness of the manner in which the panel’s report was made available to the public, and the importance of a white paper in validating the findings of the Panel suggest one thing: That the federal government is deliberately missing the point with the aim of diverting public opinion to an inconsequential angle.
The minister identified what he maintained were errors in the panel’s report and concluded that the report was not properly scrutinized.
“Gentlemen, there is absolutely nothing in the report that is circulating to make us change our stand that there was no massacre at Lekki on October 20, 2020. For us to change our stand, a well-investigated report of the incident that meets all required standards and will withstand every scrutiny must be produced and presented to the public. The report in circulation does not meet those requirements. We also appeal to the families of those allegedly killed in Lekki to speak out. It’s untenable to say that some families did not come out because they were afraid. Any parent who is afraid to testify about the death of his or her child is not worth being called a parent.”
Lai Mohammed has merely toyed with words. His verbose analysis is mere rhetoric. The minister deftly avoided addressing the battery and threats that witnesses at the panel have so far endured. He has consolidated our earlier belief that he greeted the report with scepticism so as to introduce debate into the discourse to undermine the credibility of the report. We are vindicated in identifying a propaganda machine quite in time.
On Sunday November 21, 2021, a witness Kamsiyochukwu Ibe, was accosted by hoodlums who inflicted deep machete cuts on her in Lekki, Lagos. The victim’s friend and co-witness, Dabira Adeyinka, who rushed her to the hospital, posted via her Instagram handle a video alleging threats to her. According to her, “Kamsi was butchered. Her bones were showing. As soon as the doctor finished with her, we came outside. One of us saw an envelope in the car. When we opened it, we saw a paper with my image without the head.
“Then they wrote: “You’re next. Game on!” It was an image of me at the Lagos panel when I went to give my testimony. Right now, we’re trying to stay safe. I have only spoken with my lawyer.”
A member of the panel and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, also alleged threats to his life and responded to the attack on Kamsiyochukwu, saying that the government should be held responsible if anything happened to him.
The attacks on witnesses indicate an attempt by some groups or individuals to conceal the truth of the matter; an illegal method of contesting a judicial pronouncement at that.
As a matter of fact, these attacks further explain the “silence” of the families of victims of the Lekki incident.
The attempted murder of a witness as in the case of Kamsiyochukwu, further instils fear into the minds of relatives who may wish to testify. To say nothing of the crackdown on journalists and vocal protesters since the protest, and its role in silencing the masses.
Besides, what Lai Mohammed seems to have forgotten is that videos of families who claimed the bodies of relatives and buried are still available in the public domain.
Again, the denial of the validity of the report suggests an attempt to divert the attention of the public from the implications, make a debate of facts and leave conclusions to the court of public opinion. A plan, which ought to be rejected by Nigerians.
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