Legal Practitioner, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, human rights activist, and a member of the Lagos Judicial Panel of Enquiry on Police Brutality, 2020 Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa has said that the Federal government can not approbate and reprobate at the same time.
Adegboruwa made this known on Monday reacting to the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Festus Keyamo’s comment on Channels TV programme where he faulted the judicial panel of inquiry set up to investigate cases of police brutality and SARS-related abuses, saying the reports are illegal.
Adegboruwa on his Facebook page said that ‘#EndSARS Panels were set up at the behest of the Federal Government, through the National Economic Council and that the Nigerian Army, voluntarily submitted itself to the jurisdiction of the Panel, the federal government called witnesses, it tendered documents and it made very lengthy presentations.
He also called on the Federal government to build trust in the people in all its dealings and utterances.
Adegboruwa post reads: THE LEGALITY OF #EndSARS PANELS
The federal government has recently mooted the idea that all the Judicial Panels of Inquiry set up by the various States across the Federation, especially that of Lagos State, are illegal.
It has never been part of our legal system in Nigeria, for a plaintiff who approached the court in the first instance, to turn around to challenge the legality or jurisdiction of the court.
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The #EndSARS Panels were set up at the behest of the Federal Government, through the National Economic Council. In the case of the Lagos Panel, the federal government, through the Nigerian Army, voluntarily submitted itself to the jurisdiction of the Panel, the federal government called witnesses, it tendered documents and it made very lengthy presentations.
A party cannot approbate and reprobate at the same time. Thus, a party who initiated a process and willingly and actively participated in that process, cannot turn around, after judgment, to plead illegality or absence of jurisdiction, simply because the outcome is unfavorable. We must strengthen our institutions to make them work.
While we all await the White Paper from the Lagos State Government, it is important for government to build trust in the people in all its dealings and utterances.
God bless Nigeria.
