A Lagos-based lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje, on Tuesday dragged President Muhammadu Buhari, Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai and 10 others before a Lagos Federal High Court over last Tuesday night shootings at #EnsSARS protests at the Lekki Tollgate in Lagos. He is requesting the court to compel the defendants to pay N10 billion compensation to all the victims of the shooting.
In the suit before the Federal High Court in Lagos, Ogungbeje is urging the court to declare that “the brutal shooting and killing and use of brute force against unarmed, defenceless and peaceful protesters/Nigerian citizens engaging in the #ENDSARS peaceful protest on October 20, 2020, at the Lekki tollgate was illegal, unlawful, undemocratic, oppressive, wicked and unconstitutional.”
Ogungbeje wants the court to compel the defendants to “immediately pay N10bn compensation to all the victims of the mindless shooting and brutal killing at Lekki tollgate.”
According to him, the unleashing of brutal force and shooting at the peaceful protesters were a violation of the protesters’ constitutional “right to life, fair hearing, right to peaceful assembly and association guaranteed under sections 33, 36, 38, 39 and 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.”
Ogungbeje is urging the court to make an order “compelling the immediate prosecution of all the culpable security agents, soldiers and persons directly or indirectly or remotely involved in the dastardly shooting and killing of unarmed, defenceless and peaceful protesters/victims of the #ENDSARS peaceful protests at the Lekki Tollgate on the 20th of October 2020.”
Apart from Buhari and Buratai, also joined as defendants in the suit are the Federal Government, the Nigerian Army, Chief of Defence Staff, Inspector-General of Police; Nigeria Police Force; State Security Service; Director-General, SSS; Lagos State Government; Attorney General of Lagos State; and the Attorney General of the Federation.
