No fewer than three survivors who claim to be brutalised by military and police during the #EndSARS protests which took place on October 20, 2020, at Lekki Tollgate have sued the Federal Government of Nigeria at the ECOWAS court, for abuse of their fundamental rights.
The survivors known as Bolaji Gabari, Ogunlana-Nkanga, Nelson Olanipekun, in a statement, yesterday, claimed to have suffer psychological, mental trauma and threat to life, and want the court to consider and sanction the Federal Government.
Also, they want the court to declare that the Nigerian State failed to protect the lives of the citizens from extrajudicial killings, police brutality and to promote and provide security for its citizens.
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According to them, the Federal Government ‘persistently tolerates and promotes a climate of impunity in the country as a result of its systemic failure to condemn, effectively identify and secure accountability for a series of grave attacks against the applicants and people of Nigeria and failure to convict perpetrators of human rights violations in the years preceding the 20th and 21st of October 2020 Lekki Tollgate Shooting and till date.
‘Given this disregard for the rights of Nigerian people, we are commencing litigation against the Federal Government of Nigeria at the ECOWAS Court of Justice to seek redress for the victims and accountability against the Government who through her agents were involved in the rights abuses that led to the #EndSARS protests and its aftermaths.
‘We will pursue our demands through the ECOWAS Court to ensure that the government of Nigeria is held to account for the killing of Nigerian citizens and the abuse of their rights as enshrined in the Nigeria Constitution, the African Charter of Human and Peoples Rights and other International Human Rights instruments that Nigeria is a signatory to.’
The regional court is yet to fix a date for the hearing of the suit.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
