Lekki Shooting: Lagos Governor Has No Interest in Uncovering the Truth, Criminally Responsible, Says Firebrand Lawyer Farotimi

Dele Farotimi

Firebrand lawyer Dele Farotimi has said the Lagos state governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has no interest in uncovering the truth of what happened at the Lekki toll plaza and accusing the Lagos state government of being criminally responsible for the incident.

Farotimi was a guest on ARISE News and said moves by the federal government describing sponsors of the #EndSARS protests as terrorists were aimed at ensuring that the youth representative at the Lagos judicial panel walks away.

“The Lagos state government does not dare to allow the Lagos judicial panel to sit neither does the Nigerian government or the Nigerian Army, they might pretend that they are interested in finding the truth but I guarantee you they will not allow that panel to sit.

“There are ongoing shenanigans to ensure that panel is truncated, then finding all of a sudden that people who are funding peaceful protests are terrorists. It is designed to ensure that the youth representative on that panel walks away, it is an act of provocation. Nobody sits to negotiate with a man who has a gun on the table,” he said.

Recently, some lawyers had sued the Lagos State Governor, Chairman of the state’s Judicial Panel of Enquiry and two others before the Lagos division of the Federal High Court, over the likelihood of bias in setting up the panel.

The plaintiffs are asking that the court disband the panel on the ground that the state governor, being a party in the matter, did not exercise his power in the public interest by setting up the panel.

Mr. Farotimi corroborated the lawsuit when he said the state governor, as well as the Nigerian Army, have no interest in uncovering the truth.

“I am saying that the Lagos state government, Jide Sanwo-Olu, LCC, the Nigerian Army, and everybody connected thereto have no interest in uncovering the truth of what happened in Lekki. The concerted efforts are the lies, the many aristotelian dimension to the madness they are calling investigation,” Farotimi said.

He added that “there are clear evidences, I have seen with my own eyes I have spoken with survivors, eyewitnesses, so let people stop fooling themselves. What happened in that place (Lekki) is criminal and the Lagos state government is criminally responsible and should actually not begin to pretend. The sooner it comes out, acknowledges its part in what has happened, takes responsibility for what has happened the quicker we can all heal.

“But to turn around and begin to demonize people who have merely demanded rights, at the end of the day truth dies in darkness and people have helped in keeping the truth away. People were discouraged from going before the panel and showing up and encouraged to go into exile and go underground in an attempt to cover up what happened in Lekki.”

By Abel Ejikeme