Festus Keyamo, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, has called the Lagos State EndSARS panel's findings on police brutality as "totally illegitimate," including the entire process.
After months of investigation, the panel accused Nigerian army and police for shooting and killing at least nine demonstrators on October 20, 2020, at the Lekki Toll Gate, in a report given to the Lagos State Government last week.
PREMIUM TIMES has previously reported on the terrible incident.
However, Mr. Keyamo, a lawyer, said the composition of the retired Justice Doris Okuwobi-led judicial panel of investigation "contravenes the law and should not be taken seriously," referring to the leaked panel report.
"It is entirely unlawful," Mr Keyamo said on Channels Television's Politics Today live show on Sunday. "I know that no document, no suggestion, nothing can come out of an illegal panel."
He backed up his colleague, Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed, who has similarly disputed the story and denied the blatant killings at the tollgate.
The labour and employment minister argued that his boss, President Muhammadu Buhari's, decision to direct state governments to set up committees to investigate the conduct of security operatives "was more of a political decision than a legal decision at the time," citing Section 21 of the state's Tribunal Enquiry Act.
"It says the governor has the authority to investigate into the behavior of any person, highlight any person, and then chieftaincy concerns and on and on, and then any other thing within that to promote, you know, the general welfare."
"However, any person that was defined in Section 21 to mean public officers of the states, because when they say any person, any state inside the State Office of the State is defined to me, anybody within the public service of Lagos state of the local government, as the case may be."
"If you look at Section 21 of the tribunal of Inquiry statute again, it states it needs to be within Lagos State's legislative authority.
"In other words, they can only investigate the conduct of those over whom Lagos State has control." You can look into my behavior if you don't have control over me. By virtue of the Constitution, police officers, members of the Armed Forces, and military personnel are officers of the federal government, not of Lagos states. Only the federal government has the power to regulate police and military behavior. "Lagos State has no jurisdiction over police affairs and cannot legislate," he claimed.
He accused the panel of 'imbalance,' emphasizing its attitude of not indicting individuals who participated in pointless assaults on security operations as it did officials.
Mr Keyamo stated that all comments presented on the platform were made as a "private citizen" and lawyer, not as a minister within the current administration, after establishing his arguments.
