A judicial panel probing allegations of police brutality in Lagos State has submitted its findings.

The panel submitted its findings to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State.

One of the reports was on claims of police brutality while the other was on the shooting in the Lekki area of Lagos State during last year’s EndSARS protests.

The Nigerian army denied shooting live rounds at protesters, telling the judicial panel that only blanks were used.
The protest movement started as a campaign to end the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a police unit accused of extortion, torture, and extrajudicial killings.
But the protests grew into a wider contestation against bad governance.
The governor’s office did not reveal the contents of the report, but justice Doris Okuwobi, who headed the panel, said that it considered 186 petitions out of the 252 it received.

Okuwobi expressed deep appreciation to the Lagos State Government and all the stakeholders who appeared before the panel and the team for uncommon resolve and good team work.
Justice Okuwobi, who disclosed that the panel awarded a total of N410 million to 70 victims of Police brutality, said 235 petitions were received with only 14 of it being on the alleged Lekki shooting incident.
“As much as the panel desired to have taken all petitions, the ones that were not taken by the panel were those that did not comply with our rules, so in this report, we made recommendations for a body to take over human rights abuse cases in Lagos State” she said.

Governor Sanwo-Olu vowed a “proper response” to the panel’s recommendations, adding that a “white paper” would be published within the next two weeks.
“This process will help us start the very difficult process of proper reconciliation, restitution, bringing together of anyone… affected,” Sanwo-Olu said.

He said, “I am going to constitute a four-member committee immediately, which will be headed by the Attorney-General, the Commissioner for Youths and Social Development, the Special Adviser on Works and Infrastructure and the Permanent Secretary, the Cabinet office.
“The four of them will very quickly, look through and bring forward a white paper within the next two weeks that will be considered at the Lagos State Executive Council and would be gazetted as a white paper coming from the panel of enquiry.”
Sanwo-Olu assured that all the recommendations in the submitted reports would be treated and expressed hope that Lagos State government’s decision on the reports would bring healing, reconciliation and restitution.
“We will ensure that the recommendations that are coming out that will be turn into a white paper will be made available to the public, we will do it appropriately, so that history will judge us well and we will have a document that will stand the test of time, that’s what the tribunal law says, so that it will be properly documented and gazetted in government’s records,” he said.

Last month, activists and protesting youths held memorial protests in Lagos and in the capital Abuja under heavy police watch.