#EndSARS anniversary: Rights group demands justice for victims of Lekki toll gate attack

[FILE] A woman sit in car to protest with national green and white flags displayed on the car during a protest to commemorate one year anniversary of EndSars, a protest movement against police brutality at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos, on October 20, 2021. – Hundreds of youth match to commemorate one year anniversary of Endars protest that rocked the major cities across the country on October 20, 2020. (Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP)

• Seeks End To Police Brutality, Repression

There years after the #EndSARS protest, a group, the Youth Rights Campaign (YRC), has called for justice for the victims of the Lekki Toll Gate attack.

The group, in a statement, yesterday, by its National Coordinator, Michael Adaramoye, and Secretary, Francis Nwapa, said since the #EndSARS protest on October 20, 2020, police brutality has continued unabated in the country, while the political class continues to clamp down with brute force on the democratic rights of youths and the people, including their rights to freedom of expression, and peaceful assembly.

The group stated that unrelenting onslaught on democratic rights, extortion, illegal arrest and extra judicial killing by security agencies, clampdown on trade unions, students unions and activists and the overall condition of shrinking civic space has become the norm in Nigeria over the past two decades..

The group said to mark the anniversary of the protest, YRC is calling for freedom for all political prisoners and all students, youth and workers activists being politically victimised on campuses and workplaces across Nigeria.

“We also demand justice for all victims of the Lekki toll gate massacre and other victims of police and army killings across the country. Today, we demand compensation for those killed and maimed across the country. Notably the Obi-Igbo killings by the military allegedly ordered by former Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike. We demand immediate release of any #EndSARS protester still held in any facility across the nation and adequate compensation paid for unjust incarceration. We demand that all ranking political, military and police officers, either retired or still in service, involved in the killings and brutality be tried and brought to justice.

“So far, the Federal Government and the Lagos State have continued to deny the outcome of the #EndSARS panel, which found unimpeachable evidence of the military and police role in killing scores of peaceful protesters on October 20, 2020. The report of the Lagos State Panel has been dismissed by the state and recommendations yet to be implemented.

“This denial is an insult to the collective intelligence of Nigerians, and a dishonour to the souls of those who perished on that day. As long as we breathe, we shall continue to remember these martyrs; we are going to call for justice, no matter how long it takes,” the statement read.