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Take-It-Back Movement Slams Oyo Governor, Security Agencies For Delaying Justice For #EndSARS Protesters

December 21, 2021

The group said the Oyo State government and its Department of Public Prosecution which it called DPP are trying to pervert justice.

Human rights and pro-democracy group, Take It Back Movement (TIB), Oyo State chapter, has faulted the Governor of the state, Seyi Makinde for not publishing the report of the Judicial Panel inaugurated to probe #EndSARS killings and other atrocities perpetrated by the police after a year.

The group said the Oyo State government and its Department of Public Prosecution which it called DPP are trying to pervert justice.

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TIB also said that 11 innocent protesters arrested by the security operatives during the #EndSARS protests had not been given a fair hearing, as they languished in prisons without prosecution.

These were contained in a statement signed by the State Coordinator, Emiola Solomon, which was made available to SaharaReporters on Tuesday.

It was titled, “On The Lackadaisical Attitude Of The State’s DPP And Ministry Of Justice: TIB calls for immediate redress and justice.”

The statement read in parts, “The Oyo state TIB has observed keenly, the lackadaisical nature of the Oyo State's Department of Public Prosecution (DPP) in handling cases involving the common masses.

“It is much worse to know that most of these attitudes have cost an enormous number of victims and their families both psychological and material losses.

“We have it on authority how cases in the state suffer little or no attention, and transfers from one office, hand or court to the other without any meaningful result. Worth mentioning among a series of such cases is the embattled case of the #FreeOyo11 #EndSARS protesters arrested for over a year now by the Seyi Makinde government on unproven grounds.

“These individuals, with one of them dying in the cause, have suffered detention in the worst of the Oyo State prisons without any diligent prosecution.”

The group berated both the justice ministry and security agencies in the state for delaying justice for the detained protesters.

It further read, “We condemn this ineffective discharge of duties by both the DPP and the Ministry of Justice of the state. We can see that the idea of getting justice in a court of law, largely controlled by the ruling class, is not always guaranteed for an average man. In most cases, such justice, if eventually served, would have suffered much delay, which in itself can be regarded as another form of injustice. Justice delayed, they say, is justice denied.

“For us, the struggle to take back sanity into the Nigerian system and all her sectors remain undaunted for us. We encourage the public to continue to lend their voices for diligent and transparent investigations into the issues surrounding the detention of #FreeOyo11 who have been facing torture already while the police sleep.

“In the 21st century, it is unethical for the police alone to investigate and prosecute suspect without the presence of ministry of justice representative in process of interrogation and statement writing, but the reverse is the case in our Ministry of Justice because their official has neglected their official duties and this empowers the interrogators (police) to force and torture suspect while taking their statement without the presence legal luminary who will stand to protect the suspects right to Freedom of speech as established in 1999 constitution et al.

“These acts have terminated the lives of innocent citizens which also has landed many citizens in prison for a crime they have no knowledge of.

“We can also see that since over a year too, Oyo State has refused to publish reports of the judicial panel on #EndSARS. This cannot be disconnected from possible cover-ups by the state on the events, that is, killings and brutalisation of citizens that happened at Ojoo. We believe that the truth cannot be covered no matter how long, because this truth is already with the masses.

“Lastly, we condemn in strong terms this lackadaisical attitude of the state and its actors on the question of justice and we use this medium to demand immediate actions on the aforementioned issues.”