"Those behind Lekki shootings must account for their actions" – Sanwo-Olu

 

Sanwo-Olu, who spoke in an interview session on Becky Anderson’s Connect the World, a CNN programme on Monday, said the CCTV footage at the Lekki Toll Gate would be available for the State Judicial Panel of Enquiry to review as part of the investigation into the Lekki Toll Gate shootings.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has said the Federal and State Governments would ensure that people found culpable in last Tuesday’s shooting at the Lekki Toll Plaza were held accountable for their actions.

He said: “We will be committed to a full investigation of what happened and people would be held accountable. They certainly would be held accountable. We would do everything possible to ensure that they are held accountable.

“People have claimed that their friends and family members have been killed. So, this Judicial Panel of Enquiry is meant to bring all of these stories to accountability; where we can make restitutions, where families can prove and identify officers that were responsible for this.

“I am not the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces; I am Governor of a State. The report would be out and we would channel the report to all the relevant authorities in the state to ensure that every one that is found culpable is accountable for the act.”

Sanwo-Olu also debunked the insinuation that international pressure persuaded President Muhammadu Buhari and himself to finally speak out about what protesters demonstrated for so long in Lagos and in Nigeria on the #EndSARS campaign.

He said: “There are no international pressures whatsoever. These are genuine protesters that we all believe and we all have knowledge about. I was the first governor among governors with due respect to all my other colleagues who came out to meet with them, who started from the front. I carried the EndSARS flags with them. I met with them twice and we all had the rally together and worked together.”

The Governor also expressed confidence that there would be positive change as a result of what has happened in the past couple of days with protests in different parts of Nigeria by the youths.

“I genuinely believe there would be change for two reasons. One, what has happened, especially in Lagos is extremely unimaginable. Number two is that it was a clarion call for all of us in government, especially understanding and realising what the youths truly want us to be doing. So, it hit all of us like a thunderbolt and it was just a wake-up call,” he said.

 

 

 

 

 

The News Agency of Nigeria gathered that Oba Falabi was taken into safety by military personnel who rescued the king from the mob who were on a mission to forcefully evict him.

Mob reportedly attacked and chased away Oba Olatunde Falabi, the Akire of Ikire on Monday, following the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Earlier, some youths protested the non-implementation of a Supreme Court judgement which declared Oba Falabi’s continued stay the throne as illegal.

SP Opalola Yemisi confirmed the development to newsmen and added that no life was lost during the incident.

The battle for the throne had started in 1987 after the demise of the former traditional ruler, Oba Oseni Oyegunle.

When the process of appointing a new monarch started, one of the five ruling houses, Aketula, presented a candidate, Mr Tajudeen Olanrewaju, in line with the Akire of Ikire Chieftaincy Declaration of 1958.

Before the process of Olanrewaju’s installation could be completed, two ruling houses, Ladekan and Lanbeloye, went to court to challenge the inclusion of Aketula in the ruling houses.

An Ile-Ife High Court, Ile-Ife, where the matter was instituted, consequently stopped Olanrewaju’s installation as the monarch, while the incumbent, Oba Olutunde Falabi, was installed in May 1993.

Even though he lost at the Appeal Court, Ibadan, Olanrewaju proceeded to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court, in its judgment on April 11, 2014, affirmed that Aketula was one of the ruling houses, as provided in the 1958 Akire of Ikire Chieftaincy Declaration.

The Supreme Court also held that in view of the evidence on record, “it shows that the 1958 Declaration, in respect of the Akire of Ikire Chieftaincy stool, has not been amended or repealed.’’

Following the judgment, the incumbent monarch approached an Osun High Court, praying it to restrain the state government from deposing him because he had not committed any offence warranting his removal.

He also pleaded with the court to restrain the state governor, the Commissioners for Justice, Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, from deposing him while his incumbency subsisted.

Justice Abdulkareem of Osun High Court, in his judgment of June 29, 2020, however, said that Falabi could no longer occupy the stool, based on the 1958 Akire Declaration and the rotational procedure contained therein.