#EndSARS: We can’t do anything if army rejects summons, says Lagos panel

Doris Okuwobi, chairperson of the Lagos state judicial panel, Saturday said there is nothing the panel can do if the Nigerian army refuses to honour summons.

The army is a respondent in several petitions before the panel set up by the Lagos state government to probe police brutality, especially the involvement of the army in the Lekki tollgate shooting of October 20, 2020.

Although a representative of the army, Ahmed Taiwo had appeared before the panel three times previously, it has refused to honour further summons of the panel despite several petitions against army officers.

At the panel hearing on Saturday, according to TheCable, Okwuobi, a retired justice, said petitions with summons have been forwarded to Tukur Burutai, ex-chief of army staff, for some officers to appear before the panel but there has been no response.

“All other petitions affecting the Nigerian army were which complaints have been made against them, have been forwarded to the chief of army staff with summons,” she said.

 



“The summons for then to appear, if they failed to appear there is nothing the panel can do with that.” Okwuobi’s comments came after Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, counsel representing seven #EndSARS protesters, demanded the army’s response to the comment of Babajide Lawson, a doctor at Reddington hospital, where some protesters were treated after soldiers invaded the Lekki tollgate on October 20, 2020.

The doctor had said a bullet was found in the chest region of one of those treated after the incident. Reacting, Samuel Agweh, a representative of Kehinde Akinlolu, the counsel representing the Nigerian Army, said the army disbanded the legal team representing them at the panel on November 21, 2020, adding that the Akinlolu-led team does not have the mandate to represent the army in the panel.

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