The sitting of the Lagos State Panel of Judicial Inquiry probing the alleged shooting of #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki toll gate was frustr
The sitting of the Lagos State Panel of Judicial Inquiry probing the alleged shooting of #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki toll gate was frustrated on Saturday due to the absence of the two youth members of the panel, Oluwarinu Oduala, and Temitope Majekodunmi.
Oduala, who is one of the arrowheads of the #EndSARS protest, failed to show up for the Saturday sitting in protest against the freezing of her bank account by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The CBN had obtained a court order freezing the accounts of 20 #EndSARS promoters till January 2021. One of those affected was Oduala. The chairman of the judicial, retired Justice Doris Okuwobi, said the panel had no other option but to suspend Saturday sitting as it could not form a quorum in the absence of the two youths.
Justice Okuwobi stressed that it was important for all the sittings of the panel to be held in accordance with the law.
“In all matters, we have to wait for them (youths representatives) to join us. Without them, we are handicapped,” she said.
The panel had scheduled Saturday to take the testimony of the Nigerian Army on the October 20 shootings by soldiers at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos.
A military person had already taken the witness stand when Justice Okuwobi announced that the sitting could not proceed.
The panel had on Friday fixed next Tuesday, November 10, to continue the viewing of the video footage of the Lekki shootings submitted by the Lekki Concession Company, operator of the toll gate.
In an interview with journalists, the #EndSARS protesters’ lawyer, Ogunlana, said the freezing of the bank accounts of the arrowheads of the protests had substantiated his submission to the panel on Friday that his life and those of his clients were being threatened. He declared the freezing of the protesters’ accounts as a declaration of war by government.
