Lagos State governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Friday said the state has begun the prosecution of about 20 police officers for offenses related to the violation of human rights in the state.
“Today seems like a good day to get on to the work of rebuilding Lagos and ending police brutality. To show our commitment to the latter, here is a list of ongoing prosecution of police officers for offences related to the violation of human rights in Lagos,” Sanwo-Olu tweeted.
According to the list shared by the governor, just one policeman has been arraigned, three are ready for arraignment, while 11 cases listed are “part heard” – two out are of no-case submission.
The status of two of the cases listed is newly filed. Another case has “ready for filing” status and another case status is” information filed”.
The governor listed Inspector Surulere Irede, Sargent Sunday Ogunyemi, Corporal Hezekiah Babatunde, Corporal Pepple Boma for manslaughter offences, while Adamu Dare, Ogunyemi Olalekan, Aminu Joseph, Matthew Ohansi, Edokhe Omokhide, Afolabi Saka, Aremu Museliu, Monday Gabriel are listed for murder.
Sargent Adebayo Abdullah, Emmanuel Uyankweke, Akanbi Lukmon are accused of involuntary manslaughter.
One Inspector Emmanuel Akpobana is accused of attempted murder while Sargent Segun Okun and Capt. Adekunle Oluwarotimi are accused of manslaughter and attempted murder.
Sargent Gbanwuan Isaac is accused of grievous bodily harm, while Inspector A Mohammed and two others are accused of armed robbery. Sargent Mark Argo and five others are accused of conspiracy and armed Robbery.
This is coming after weeks of protest against police brutality across the country which has led to the shutdown of the commercial city since Wednesday following the unrest that ensued from the shooting of unarmed protesters at Lekki toll-gate on Tuesday night.
Sanwo-Olu described the episode as “among the darkest hours” of the state history while he blamed “forces beyond our direct control” for the shooting. Questions are still being raised over who ordered the shooting.
At least seven people were killed according to DJ Switch, a popular disc jockey who broadcast live from the scene on Instagram. In the video, protesters were seen struggling to remove bullets from injured protesters.
Amnesty International said it had credible evidence that 12 persons were killed at Lekki and Alausa on Tuesday and called for the investigations.
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