Two rights activists, Dabiraoluwa Olayinka Oni-Ayoku and Ifeanyi Okoye, have blamed former President Muhammadu Buhari for the military action that led to the death of many youths in Lagos during the ENDSARS protest across the country.
The duo also expressed the hope that “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration would re-write the story of EndSARS to give hope to the Nigerian youth.”
Oni-Ayoku and Okoye who spoke on the current state of the nation, said the ex-President should be called to answer queries for the military action during the ENDSARS protest as well as all he knew about the protest.
Oni-Ayoku said, “I would be very honest and this is a constructive explanation from my end. First and foremost, there was an administration in power at that time and ex-President Muhammadu Buhari was the head of that administration. I know for sure that no country’s military act without the approval of the number one citizen, in person of the president.
“So the number one and only person that should be held responsible for the EndSARS incident which continues to resonate amongst Nigerian youths and has become a stigma, is no one else but ex-president Muhammadu Buhari.“
Supporting Oni-Ayoku’s submission, Okoye, also called for ex-Army Chief, Tukur Buratai’s trial.
“Many people talk and say Governor Sanwo-Olu should not be exonerated but I, Comrade Ifeanyi Okoye, can tell categorically that the governor is never in charge of the security apparatus until we have a state police because we still run a federal police system and central military system and the C-in-C is still the President.
“The President should be answerable for whatever transpired, hence, to an extent, I will exonerate Governor Sanwo-Olu, who was the governor then and current governor.
“We all saw the effort he made to ensure that the demands of the protesters were met by meeting the president several times, meeting him privately and taking our demands to him but like we all know, Nigeria is a place where citizenry need to be on our toes to get what we want but sadly, the military struck, obviously, on the orders of the C-inC.
Buhari should be queried and asked to give account because he was the President and C-in-C and the actions of the military were carried out on the instructions of the C-in-C and the Chief of Army Staff, who is Buratai. They should be questioned and called to answer several plaguing questions as to why.”
In the same vein, Oni-Ayoku, an entrepreneur and construction expert exonerated the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu but insists the whitepaper document recommendation by the panel he set up to look into the EndSARS activities should be implemented.
“Breaking it down now, I was in Lagos and it was tough, there was chaos, Lagos was like the leading state and we have Babajide Sanwo-Olu, whom I saw on two occasions visiting Buhari with our demands but what went wrong, I can not explain. In fairness to Mr Sanwo-Olu, I also saw him trying to engage us on a few occasions but my issue was when the order was given by the then administration, he could have interjected because we are in a democratic state and not a military state.
Governor Sanwo-Olu tried his best but he could have done more. The aftermath of EndSARS saw him visiting the victims, organised a panel and the panel concluded its submission with a whitepaper document but he’s now referring us to the Federal Government.
“Sadly, the past administration won’t do anything again and the current administration might not be able to do anything because they are just in the system. We are not saying we want to hold Sanwo-Olu responsible but what we are saying is that there should be an implementation of the whitepaper document.
“Even President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration can re-write the story of EndSARS to give hope to the Nigerian youth and that is because the Nigerian youths matter.”
Adding to oni-Ayoku’s submission, Okoye said, “Governor Sanw-Olu set up a panel that came up with a white paper document and despite all that efforts, the recommendation of the panel in the document is yet to be implemented. The military men, the errant police officers, who necessitated the protest, and many more should be brought to book.
“Till date, neither the military officers nor the SARS operatives have been brought to book for their actions. In the same vein, the Chief of Army Staff or the ex-President have not been tried for their involvement in the military action that occurred in Lagos.”