By Lucky Isibor
Four years after the ENDSARS protests, the last may not have been heard about the brutalisation of participants in the 2020 protest demanding end to police brutality code named ENDSARS by security agencies as some of the survivors of the brutalisation by security agencies during the protest have cried out for government’s attention.
Narrating their plights while protesting the non-implementation of the report of the committee set up by the Edo State government to ascertain the level of brutalisation of protesters during ENDSARS in Edo State, leader of the victims, Dr. Hafiz Lawal called on the state government to implement the recommendations of that committee.
While emphasising the imperatives of the implementation of the committee’s report, Lawal noted that there are some victims whose arms and limbs have been amputated and are now unable to fend for themselves and the committee recommended measures to reintegrate these persons back into the society; but pointed out that the report has not been implemented since 2020.
In the words of Lawal, “Today is the 20th of October which marks the 4th anniversary when Nigerian government sent soldiers to shoot at us protesters for demanding for a better Nigeria, for demanding end to the activities of the criminal SARs that once ravaged the entire Nigerian society. We were shot at, we were killed; today we are still alive. Even when some of us have died, we have survivors in the midst of us. You can see today we have one of the survivors who survived the brutality of the soldiers sent to shoot at us.
“We are here to demand justice, we are here to demand that government should respect the panel’s recommendations. There were various recommendations by the EDSARS panel and these recommendations have not been implemented. The panel recommended that the government should pay compensation to the survivors of the ENDSARS survivors and families of those who lost their lives in that unfortunate incident. We want the government to respect and implement the panel recommendations. We want justice for the dead, we want freedom for the living”.
Also speaking, one of the survivors, Steven Ohimai whose limbs were amputated as a result of gun shot injuries he sustained in the hands of security agents during the ENDSARS protests narrated his ordeal and called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State to come to his aid.
According to Ohimai who is a graduate of the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, “This injury you all are seeing here today is as a result of the ENDSARS protest that happened in 2020 when I was in my final year at the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi. After the incident, the government set up a panel and I presented my case before the panel. Today makes it four years since I sustained this injury from that unfortunate incident and till this very moment nothing has been done; the panel recommendations have not been implemented.
“As we mark the fourth anniversary of that unfortunate incident, I want the government to be aware that am still alive and appeal to them to implement the recommendations of the panel. I appeal to the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to come to my aid”, Ohimai pleaded.