The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has called on Nigerians to ignore any form of sensationalism that the Amnesty International investigative panel on Endsars will cause.
At a news briefing in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, the Chairman of the BMO, Mr Niyi Akinsiju alleged that Amnesty International and the anti-corruption body, Transparency International are trying to set up parallel investigative panels to discredit the judicial panels on police brutality earlier constituted by the government.
He said this parallel panel was not necessary and that it would unsettle the polity unnecessarily.
“These local collaborators, operating under the guise of Coalition for Survival of Covid-19 and led by a prominent human rights lawyer, are bent on discrediting the judicial panel investigating the alleged Lekki shootings and the defunct SARS’ alleged brutalities.
“On the surface, this Covid-19 coalition is supposedly on a mission to enrich ongoing investigations into ‘age-long abuses suffered by Nigerians in the hand of members of the defunct Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS)’ in as many as 30 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) where panels have been set up, but there is more to it than meets the eye.
“These individuals who should have used the open platform of the judicial panel in Lagos to prove their claim of a massacre at the Lekki toll gate on October 20 are now colluding with Amnesty International which is still struggling to manufacture evidence of its allegations of a massacre that night by soldiers.
“We have reasons to believe that this investigative panel which they intend to run parallel with the States’ Judicial Panel, is nothing short of a charade paid for by Amnesty International and Transparency Initiative to smear the image of the Nigerian Army with contrived testimonies.
“A substantial fund running into US$750,000 (N360,000 000) has been provided and paid into an account outside the country. The information at our disposal is that the organisers are still expecting more funds for the hatchet job they have signed up for.
“Their modus operandi will include using people who will be identified as military men, with their faces masked, to present damaging ‘testimonies’ against the Army authorities,” he said.
Mr Akinsiju advised the coalition of the international bodies to rather focus on helping Nigerians overcome the challenges brought on by COVID-19 and ensure that equity is served in the already existing investigative panels.
Zainab Sa’id
