The panel that investigated the circumstances surrounding the crises generated by the 2020 #ENDSARS protest in Lagos has recommended that the Lekki Toll Gate be renamed ENDSARS Toll Gate.
Tagged the Lagos State Judicial Panel Of Inquiry On Restitution For Victims Of SARS Related Abuse And Other Matters, it submitted its report to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Monday, with the following recommendations:
1. Nigeria Police Force should be adequately funded and its men effectively trained to enable them carry out their constitutional duty.
2. The panel recommends disciplinary actions against Lt Col S.O Bello and Major General Godwin Umelo for refusing to honour the panel’s summons. Soldiers deployed to Lekki Tollgate on October 20, 2020, should also face disciplinary actions, be stripped of their status and be dismissed from service.
3. The panel recommends that all arrested during the protest should be granted bail, prosecuted and where there is no evidence, should be released.
4. Divisional Police Officer of Maroko Police Station, CSP Raji Ganiyu and policemen deployed from the station on 20th and 21st October 2020 should be prosecuted for arbitrary and indiscriminate shooting and killing of protesters.
5. The panel recommends that the Lekki Toll Plaza be made a memorial site for the EndSARS protest by renaming it ENDSARS Tollgate.
6. The panel also recommended that 20 October every year should be named a “Toll Free Day” as long as the tollgate exists.
7. The Federal Government should publicly apologise to Nigerian youths for undermining the #ENDSARS protest with their state actors.
