Nigerian economist and businessman, Atedo Peterside, said the country cannot make progress if “prominent liars” are allowed to continue to spearhead its affairs.
Atedo said unless a society is built on justice and truth, making restitution to safeguard its peace and unity may be difficult.
“A nation that prominent liars are at the front will not make any progress and it becomes very dangerous because even when they are trying to tell the truth, nobody believes them,” the investment banker said in reaction to the report of the Lagos State judicial panel on the October 2020 #EndSARS protest.
The panel submitted the 309-page report to the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Monday.
The report contradicted earlier claims by the Federal and Lagos State governments that protesters were not killed at the Lekki toll gate by soldiers deployed to the area to quell the protest.
The panel confirmed that 48 casualties were recorded at the toll gate and acknowledged a report on 96 other corpses presented to it by a Forensic Pathologist at the Lagos State University Teaching, Professor John Obafunwa.
Atedo, while appearing on Arise TV on Tuesday, said “it is tempting to laugh at those in government who came out and started making all kinds of wild statements” about the protest.
He said some of the statements made by the government officials showed that they were not present in Lekki or in Lagos when the incident took place.
“Why would somebody who was in Abuja be making statements about what happened and did not happen in Lekki when the named soldiers who were in Lekki have refused to open their mouths to say anything in front of a judicial panel?
“My assumption as a lay person is that the person who was on a crime scene knows that if he goes to a judicial panel and takes an oath and they ask him did you or did you not kill somebody? Who did you shoot? He could be in trouble.
“So, if that person is running away, I expect others to have the wisdom to say hang on a second, don’t ask me anything questions, go and ask those who were on the scene.”
THE WHISTLER recalls that Nigeria’s information minister, Lai Mohammed, had described the Lekki shooting incident as a “phantom massacre” with no bodies.
But following the release of the Lagos judicial panel’s report, Atedo bashed those he described as “overzealous people in government” for making hasty conclusions on the incident.
“At the end of the day now, we have some heroes from this exercise and it’s at such moments that nations get formed. If there was no Lekki toll gate, there are many things that may never happen in this country,” he said.
Atedo further cautioned the Lagos State government against shielding security operatives and government officials indicted in the report.
“So, the Lekki toll gate incident of October 20, 2020, may well be an important tipping point. Let’s wait for the white paper from the Lagos State government. But from the little we all saw and we’ve got brains, I will like to see how the Lagos State Government will not prosecute people who were involved in the coverup. How Lagos State government will not prosecute the people who refused to appear before a judicial panel.
“Whoever is in charge of justice in Lagos must rise up, this is your moment to stand up and be counted. Nigeria is not going to change until people stand up. The judicial panel has stood up and we must clap for them.”
He advised Nigerian youths to express their anger over the panel’s findings by participating fully in the 2023 general election.
“The governor of Lagos must meet his own obligations and like I told the youths during the #EndSARS, yes you are angry and this judicial panel report might make you even angrier because the evidence is there that people were lying, but that anger should be channeled at something and it should be channeled towards the next election which is in 15 months’ time,” he said.
source: thewhistler.ng/
