#EndSars: LP wants Lagos govt to meet youths’ demands, compensate victims
The Labour Party (LP) in Lagos State has called on Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to meet the five demands of the youth in the aftermath of the Oct. 20, 2020 #EndSars protest.
Pastor Dayo Ekong, the Lagos State Chairman of Labour Party in a statement on Friday to commemorate the 3rd anniversary of the nationwide protests.
Ekong said: “We remember a day of infamy, a blood-lettered day, very much etched in our collective memory.
“Exactly three years ago, some of our youths who during the #ENDSARS protest, decrying an end to police brutality, extra judiciary killings, extortion and abuse of power especially by the now defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad SARS were cut down in their prime by the ruinous All Progressives Congress (APC) led regime in a most bizarre and ruthless manner.
“Though the actual casualties and fatalities suffered by the Nigerian youths demanding for a better and effective policing architecture remains unknown till date, what is however certain is that the Nigerian state carried out a carnage of monumental scale and proportion against its Youths.
“What is more shocking to us is that Lagos State Government led by Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu kept the dead bodies of 103 victims killed under his brutal watch for 3 years before leaked memo that exposed his plan to conduct a mass burial for the dead victims.
“A callous and wicked plan as families were denied the right to bury their dead love ones; leaving families in pain and endless agony. We are demanding answer to the identities of the victims and we call on the Lagos state Governor to meet the five demand of the Youth.”
According to her, globally, it is part of exercising citizens’ democratic right for people to protest against any action of government deemed bad and obnoxious.
She said that it was however incumbent, on government to not only ensure that such rights are guaranteed and protected, the state must and should as a matter of fact listen to such agitation with a view to correcting perceived lapses in their operations.
“This is not the case with the APC-led government as it has confirmed to not only become more repressive and mean to its people, it has also refused to draw any useful lesson from that unfortunate event that claimed the lives of our youths.
“On the part of the Labour Party here in Lagos, being the epicenter of the massacre, we mourn our departed gallant Youths who were fell by bullets of the Nigerian Army whose personnel is maintained by the state to protect them.
“Sadly enough, these harmless and hapless youths were gunned in a most barbaric fashion while holding the Nigerian flag,” Ekong said.
She decried that three sad years after, Police brutality had not stopped.
“Has extortion been tamed? Do our youths have confidence in the sincerity of the government and police? Sincere answers will be in the negative.
“We are, however, using this occasion of the third-year remembrance to demand closure from Governor Babajide Sanwo Olu under whose watch these youths were murdered.
“By meeting the five demands of the youths and full release of every victim still locked up in Lagos prisons over the ENDSAR’s protest,” she said.
Ekong said the abour Party in Lagos State was asking the state government to account for both the dead and the maimed three years after with proper identity of the bodies and proper compensation to their families.
The LP boss said: “We are also demanding for records of compensation for those directly and indirectly affected from the state government.
“The Labour Party also seeks to know how well governments at the various tiers have addressed the issues that precipitated the protest just as we also demand accountability in government as a means of protecting the Nigerian citizen from State Massacre.”
