Three years after the EndSars protest, the Lagos state government admitted that 103 people across the state died during the protest. In Anambra, following the creation of a panel to look into the extrajudicial killings by the police, over 310 cases of police abuse were investigated.

The EndSars protest was the loudest Nigerians have been against violent killings by personnel of various Nigerian security operatives.

When the protest’s reached its heating point, Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s former vice president told Nigerians that he has had meetings with the 36 state governors of Nigeria and the minister of the federal capital territory to create judicial panels of inquiries so that justice could be served. He promised that the hearings would be public.

Osinbajo’s announcement came six days after the Lekki Massacre.

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While the panel hearings proceeded, the Nigeria police asked the court to put a stop to them, citing that they were “unconstitutional, illegal, null and void and of no effect whatsoever”.

The National Human Rights Commission in 2023, said it only received the panel reports of 16 states from the 29 where judicial panels were created.

Despite the report of the 16 states, Osinbajo failed to implement them.

On Wednesday, EQ reported that even Anambra, which was arguably the hottest zone of these police killings, both before and during the #EndSars protest, failed to implement the findings of its own report.

From various complaints on social media, the common name that victims and families of victims of police abuse in Anambra spotlighted was James Nwafor, a former chief superintendent of police in the state between 2012 and 2016.

Nwafor was alleged by many to have supervised the killings of innocent people in the state before his transfer to Bauchi.

Until now, Nwafor is yet to stand trial in a court of law.

SHETTIMA, LIKE HIS PREDECESSOR, HAS BEEN LAX IN IMPLEMENTING THE REPORTS

In a January report by Vanguard, the United States government, during a United Nations Human Rights Council period review in Switzerland, specifically asked the Nigerian government to implement the reports of the EndSars protests panels.

The US representative also said that Nigeria should amend the Nigerian Press Act to remove restriction on press freedom.

“Our main concern is on certain restrictions on Nigerians on the enjoyment of human rights. In the spirit of constructive engagement, we recommend that Nigeria implement recommendations from state level investigations panel report on security forces response to the #EndSars protests including prosecution as appropriate of the individual implicated in the reports,” the US representative said.

Amend the Nigerian Press Act of 1992 to remove restriction on the freedom of expression specifically as it applies to online and citizen journalists.”

Despite the domestic and international calls to end police extrajudicial killings in Nigeria, police brutality has continued to rear its head.

In October, Amnesty International reported that it has continued to receive reports of police unlawful detention, torture and extrajudicial killings almost everyday.

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‘THE LAW ALLOWS TO SUE THE GOVERNMENT FOR NON-IMPLEMENTATION,’ LAWYER SAYS

Abdul Mahmud, a human rights lawyer and a counsel to some of the victims and families of victims of police brutality told EQ on Thursday that the law permits individuals to get an order of the court enforcing Shettima to direct states to act on the findings of the report.

“The law is not silent. I am waiting for specific instructions from some of the families I represent on the way forward. We have two options open to us,” Mahmud said.

We would either go to a state high court or a federal high court. In this instance, federal high court. Because, the people that we are alleging killed families of my clients are officials of the Nigerian police force.

Two, we can also go to court and seek an order of mandamus, a mandatory order compelling the vice president to direct governors to release the reports of the judicial panels.”

The post Osinbajo, Shettima Moved On From #EndSars Reports. Courts Could Strike Them appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.