2023: EndSARS Report Will Have Major Political Implications for Tinubu, Sanwo-Olu, Intelligence Report Says

The leaked EndSARS report will have major political implications for Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ambition to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023, and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State’s re-election for a second four-year term, a damning intelligence report has said.

In its Nigeria Focus, a monthly intelligence report on Nigeria, Menas Associates, a political risk consultancy says some All Progressives Congress (APC) insiders are already insinuating that Tinubu instigated the Lagos panel report in a bid to blackmail the ruling party into giving him the presidential ticket.

Interestingly, the report adds that there is no evidence that Tinubu had anything to do with the outcome of the report.

On November 15 the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry — into police brutality and the Lekki tollgate killings during the EndSARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) protests in October 2020 — finally submitted its report to the state government.

According to the political risk consultancy, ‘’ts contents, which were simultaneously leaked, will impact the race for the 2023 Presidency and will probably end any hope that Governor Sanwo-Olu has of being re-elected for a second four-year term.

‘’The panel’s report was not supposed to be made public until the government’s position paper on its recommendations was published. On the day that the panel submitted its report, however, a copy was leaked to the media and its findings and recommendations are already causing a lot of political heat.

‘’The panel — at which senior army officials initially refused to appear has now found that soldiers shot unarmed protesters ‘without provocation or justification.’ It indicated that deadly violence was compounded by the army’s obstruction of ambulances on their way to render medical assistance, and by police complicity in denying the true nature of events.

‘’The panel’s characterisation of the incident as a massacre up the ante, as do its recommendations for disciplinary action and reform, and its disclosure that over ₦400 million ($972,000) in damages has already been awarded to numerous victims.

‘’More damages are likely as the judicial process continues, whether Sanwo-Olu follows through on his promise that victims of the violence will be fully compensated by the state.

‘’He also promises a white paper on the incident within two weeks, but this may do little to reassure domestic and international critics such as human rights lawyers, Amnesty International members, senior UN officials, and US government representatives.

‘’The panel’s report has left the military, federal government, and state officials nowhere to hide.

‘’President Buhari’s team suggests that the Federal Government will ‘wait for the steps taken by the states’ — whether Lagos or other states with EndSARS investigative panels — rather than ‘impose’ a Federal Government response.’’

Continuing, the intelligence report said, ‘’complaints by military officials that leaking the report was a violation of process will not impress outraged critics.

‘’Pressure for military/security forces/police reforms is inevitable. The report moreover provides further momentum to opposition attacks on the government’s security record, and of its efforts to stifle both physical and social-media protest and criticism.

‘’The leaking of the report also resurrects EndSARS as a major domestic issue, following months during which some analysts viewed it as a movement that had fizzled out.

‘’The report has boxed Governor Sanwo-Olu into a difficult corner. If his government tries to discredit the report, which its lawyer has been doing, it is likely to be seen as an attempt to cover up.

‘’If, however, it backs the report, the state government could put itself at odds with the Federal Government which has always insisted that no killings occurred at the tollgate.

‘’The panel’s recommendations will also negatively impact Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his ambitions to succeed President Buhari.’’

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