Newsone Nigeria reports that the Lagos State government led by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has been accused of giving EndSARS victims the sum of N100 million as compensation.
This online news platform recalls that End SARS, widely written as #EndSARS, was a decentralised social movement and series of mass protests against police brutality in Nigeria, West Africa, that mainly occurred in 2020 during the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. The protest was against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
On the night of 20 October 2020, at about 6:50 p.m., members of the Nigerian Army opened fire on unarmed End SARS protesters waving Nigerian flags at the Lekki toll gate, the main convergence point of the protest in Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial city. Amnesty International stated that at least 12 protesters were killed during the shooting.
A day after the incident, on 21 October, the governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, denied reports of any loss of lives, but later admitted in an interview with a CNN journalist that “only two persons were killed”.
On Sunday, September 29, 2024, some details emerged on how funds from the Lagos government, under Governor Sanwo-Olu’s leadership, were allegedly shared by acclaimed coordinators of the EndSARS protest.
A social media user, Princess Banke Oniru, took to the micro-blogging site, X formerly known as Twitter, to allege that some coordinators of the ENDSARS protest shared millions of naira severally.
According to Oniru, while initial funds offered by the Lagos State Government were rejected, coordinators later shared several millions of money from the government.
The X user claimed she initially refused the largesse but later asked her assistant to pick it from a popular social commentator, Sarah Ibrahim, and she (Oniru) shared the money accrued to her as giveaways.
Oniru, with tweets from the handle @HRH_bankeoniru on X, wrote, “Following the EndSARS unrest, and during the panel of inquiry, the Lagos State Government’s initial funding offer was met with resistance.
“@sarahibrahim and associates then consulted Mr. Femi Falana regarding the substantial sum proposed for advisory purposes. Despite Mr. Falana’s counsel to accept the funds as a gift, I deemed it incongruous to accept financial compensation from those we were opposing, fearing it may undermine our integrity.
“The first funds Sarah called me to pick up was N1.5m. The second was N1m. I have proofs. Messages to back it up. The #endsars coordinators shared millions of money severally. Going back and forth to pick a Ghana must-go filled with cash at Alausa Ikeja.
“On two separate occasions, I entrusted my personal assistant to collect money from Sarah, ensuring she took photographs for evidentiary purposes. Afterward, I shared images of the funds received on EndSARS United and Competent Nigerians platforms for public dissemination as giveaways. Adeshina Ademola Ogunlana of blessed memories was the only lawyer that stood genuinely for the endsars. He can never be bought.”
‘Lagos offered N100 million’.
Displeased with Oniru’s claims, Sarah Ibrahim countered the lawyer and explained that Oniru displayed “severe ingeniousness” in her allegations, adding that though the Lagos State Government reached out to her and offered N100 million, she never accepted the offer.
Tweeting from @TheSerahIbrahim in a lengthy post on X, Sarah said that after consulting her lawyers, she asked the government to use the funds in supporting Lekki Toll Gate victims’ families, and those who are injured.
She wrote, “So yes, I was reached by the Lagos State Government to offer N100 million. A meeting they were trying to have for months but I kept refusing because I was rightfully pissed at them.
“Finally, I attended one of the meetings after speaking with my lawyer Fusika SAN,
who then took me to also consult jointly with Falana SAN, on what to do. At one of the meetings, I attended with @akintollgate where one of Sanwo Olu’s commissioners apologised for what happened at the Toll Gate and wanted us to make amends.
“He spoke like a father, he was nice and very understanding and wanted us to make peace with the govt, and move on. Truthfully, his words calmed me. After all was said and blame passed back and forth, he stated there was a financial offer to us to cover for all we must have spent and gone through during the period, an amount of N100 million. Immediately I refused, I didn’t want to involve myself with it. And I spoke with Akin who agreed with my thought on it. I only requested that prosthetics be done for those who were amputated so that we can help them move around.”
Sarah claimed that upon rejecting the monetary offer, she started getting calls from families of victims and she had to change her stance.
“So after, I started getting calls from the victims, I was pissed. I went to the lawyers and told them what was happening. The govt informed me that the money was in cash and it was to be given to me, that I should come and pick it up and do with it what I wish. So speaking to Falana SAN, he then said if the govt is remorseful and wants to finally help those they shot and killed at the toll gate, let me not block it but allow it to happen.
“I told Falana SAN that I personally did not want anything to do with the money and I did not want to go pick it up like the govt wanted, and I wanted to stay out of it, and he immediately right there and then, wrote a letter for me and told me to give to the commissioner stating that the govt should do it the right way. The govt stated that the money was in two ranches of N50 million each and so there were two letters one stating N50 million and another stating the total of N100 million.
“I insisted that the govt should just give out the compensations as instructed by the panel, rather than this ‘backyard assistance’ like my dad called it.”
Apart from this, there have been several controversies around the funds generated for the protest, with the Feminist Coalition (FEMCO) facing public scrutiny over the group’s alleged inability to properly account for the funds received during the EndSARS protest in 2020.
Meanwhile, Newsone reports that the Lagos State government was yet to react to the alleged funds paid to victims’ families and EndSARS protest coordinators as of the time of filing this report.