Chieh Patrick Eholor, a human rights activist and the President of the One Love Foundation, has stated that he and other activists will stop at nothing to guarantee that all government officials involved in the massacre of innocent Nigerians at the Lekki tollgate last year be held to account.
As part of his remarks, he stated that individuals guilty for the atrocity on October 20, 2020, will be brought before the International Criminal Court of Justice (ICC) in The Hague for committing crimes against humanity.
He stated that his foundation, in collaboration with other civil society organizations and human rights lawyers, has been working around the clock to bring the perpetrators of the Lekki massacre to justice since the massacre occurred.
He revealed this in Abuja over the weekend while recounting to journalists his experiences following his arrest by the police in Lagos on October 20, 2021, at the #EndSARS memorial protest.
Eholor expressed himself as follows: "We witnessed the blood streaming from the Nigerian flags, as well as the (former Lagos State governor, Babatunde) Fashola, who suddenly transformed himself into a forensic expert; for a two-term governor to publicly embarrass himself was shocking. I am overjoyed that the entire world is aware of it. You are probably aware that Antony Blinken, the Secretary of State of the United States, has expressed alarm over human rights abuses in Nigeria.
"Nigeria is also cognizant of the fact that we have something that supersedes sovereignty, namely, the International Court of Justice in The Hague. So, if they don't nip it in the bud and follow the recommendations of the white paper, they're invited to the Hague to discuss it. My attorney, Samuel Ihensekhien, is prepared to push them to the brink of insanity.
In order to ensure that we are heard, we are prepared to support and collaborate with any foundation. We demand that Lai Mohammed (Minister of Information and Culture) apologize to Nigerians, resign, and be disgraced.
He claimed that his foundation was the first to respond when the Nigerian government imposed a Twitter ban, by bringing the government to court to dispute the action taken by the government.
"We are relieved, and the verdict will be delivered very soon, and we are confident that we will be successful. We are aware that they do not have the authority to prohibit Twitter. After they accomplished that, the government officials who are denying us access to Twitter, persons like Lai Mohammed and Nasir El-Rufai, continued to use the same Twitter account they had been using before.
"I wanted to be a part of the anniversary of #EndSARS because I was advocating for the formation of a movement for those young people who were killed by soldiers and police, as well as the establishment of a monument in their honor, and that is why I was there to lend my support. Unfortunately, the police have not learned their lesson and continue to kill unarmed citizens. They descended on me before I had a chance to say anything."
He claimed that he had committed no crime and that he had been speaking and advocating for the cause of the police, namely, the need for sufficient payment of their salaries as well as the construction of barracks for the officers.
He stated that the police had done nothing to curtail their violence towards innocent Nigerians since the former Inspector General of Police (IGP) banned the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) from operating in the country.
"In my opinion, we are misleading ourselves, and I believe that the police are victims in the same way that I was a victim, because the amount of extrajudicial executions that have occurred since the #EndSARS campaign is impossible to tally. So there hasn't been much of a shift.
"Police have consistently stated that there will be no roadblocks or unlawful stops and searches, but they continue to practice this. Consider the following scenario: in the twenty-first century, young boys and girls are barred from using iPhones because they have referred to them as Yahoo boys. You are not allowed to have tattoos on your body because you will be labeled as a criminal "The activist went on to say more.
In his criticism of the police, he said they were chasing shadows rather than pursuing the genuine criminals who had stolen the commonwealth of Nigerians.
Young boys and girls in this country are not the problem, he explained further. "The problem in this country is the entire elite that we recycle that has stolen the commonwealth of Nigerians for their own selfish interests," he said. "The problem in this country is not the young boys and young women who are simply trying to survive."
Source: Sahara reporters.