EBUN-OLU ADEGBORUWA SAN – – There really can be no justice without truth. There can be no justice without truth and there can be no truth, unless someone rises up to tell it.
Emile Zola has rightly posited that “truth and justice are about and beyond everything, for the greatness of Nations depend on them”. Sadly, Nigeria’s current reality was not envisioned by the French Novelist.
We all could recall that Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa SAN, a member of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for victims of SARS Related Abuses and Other Matters headed by Retired Justice Doris Okuwobi had on the 17th of November 2021 raised alarm that members of the panel were being persecuted by some Lagos State Government officials over findings that protesters were killed on the 20th day of October 2020.
Adegboruwa Stated that all manners of allegation have been heaped upon panel members , while some have been called unprinted names, and others have been threatened.
The Human Rights Activist has stated unequivocally that suspected agents of government have attacked him and issued threats to his life especially in the media.
Series of sponsored attacks and mindless accusations national television now seem to be the new order.
Adegboruwa has served this country meritoriously and does not in any way deserve to have his very existence threatened.
One will begin to wonder why the government of Lagos appointed him and other panelists in the first place if they will end up doubting their report to the point of allegedly issuing threats via appointees.
On Sunday, November 21 at Crown Estate Bus-Stop in Sangotedo area of Lagos State, one of the prominent ENDSARS protesters who testified before the panel, Miss Kamsiyochukwu Ibe, was attacked, stabbed 4 times on her wrist and machetted on another part of her body.
This is a clear case of attempted murder by the hoodlums whom she accused of being sponsored.
In another twist, the lady who visited Kamsi at the hospital was equally sent a note reading “You are next” with her picture attached and other unidentifiable images.
I have therefore noticed this trend and hereby call on the Governor of Lagos State to as a matter of exigency protect the lives and property of every member of the panel and witnesses especially Ebun Adegboruwa SAN. This scare tactics, threat to life, attempted murder , malicious and unjustified harming of a person’s good reputation can only delay Justice but with never contravene the now established report that there was a massacre at the Lekki-Toll gate.
As laid down by Lord Hewart, the then Lord Chief Justice of England in the case of Rex v Sussex Justices, [1924] 1 KB 256 “Justice must not only be done, but must also be seen to be done”. Those who died or got injured at the Lekki Toll-Gate October 20 2020 Massacre must get Justice and people who fight for their justice must be protected at all cost by the state
It will be morally wrong and unlawful for the Lagos State government under Sanwo-Olu to continuously shield and protect the people who were instrumental to the October 20 2020 massacre.
Finally, the good people of Ilaje nation, civil society organisations, CSOs and the Nigerian masses would be closely monitoring this situation, while hoping that the key players are allowed to go about their businesses without any form of intimidation.
Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa is a symbolic National Treasure and must be protected at whatever cost.
