A SENIOR Advocate of Nigeria, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa and Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association’s Section on Public Interest and Development Law (NBA-SPIDEL), Dr. Monday Ubani, have rejected the position of Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, on the legality of the Lagos EndSARS panel.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Keyamo argued that “all the Panels of Inquiry set up by the various States of the Federation following the crisis that arose as a result of EndSars Protest all over the country is illegal.”
But in a short position paper he made available to Prime Business Africa early this morning, Adegboruwa, who had earlier raised the alarm that his life was in danger because of role in the Lagos State panel that indicted federal government’s security operatives in the controversial Lekki shootings, said, the EndSARS probe panels, especially that of Lagos State, was legal.
“The federal government,” he noted, “has recently muted the idea that all the Judicial Panels of Inquiry set up by the various States across the Federation, especially that of Lagos State, are illegal. It has never been part of our legal system in Nigeria, for a plaintiff who approached the court in the first instance, to turn around to challenge the legality or jurisdiction of the court.”
He argued that the #EndSARS Panels were set up at the behest of the Federal Government, through the National Economic Council. “In the case of the Lagos Panel, the Federal Government, through the Nigerian Army, voluntarily submitted itself to the jurisdiction of the Panel, the federal government called witnesses, it tendered documents and it made very lengthy presentations.”
In effect, Adegboruwa argued that a party cannot approbate and reprobate at the same time. Thus, a party who initiated a process and willingly and actively participated in that process, cannot turn around, after judgment, to plead illegality or absence of jurisdiction, simply because the outcome is unfavorable. We must strengthen our institutions to make them work.
“While we all await the White Paper from the Lagos State Government, it is important for government to build trust in the people in all its dealings and utterances.God bless Nigeria, Adegboruwa advised.
On his part, Ubani said “I disagree vehemently with him and let him know that he erred gravely in law and logic in his posturing tonight on channels TV,” Ubani said in his long memo.
