The Lagos State Commissioner of Police and the Inspector-General of Police have been ordered by a Federal High Court in Lagos to compensate some #EndSARS protesters for the infringement of their fundamental rights with N10 million.
During the trial judge Justice Musa Kakaki found that the applicant/protesters’ constitutional rights were violated and they were subjected to unjust harassment while attending the fourth memorial rally on October 20, 2024.
Justice Kakaki also ruled that although law enforcement organisations are empowered by the constitution to uphold order, they must do so within the parameters of democracy and the rule of law.
Hassan Soweto, Uadiale Kingsley, Ilesanmi Kehinde, Osopale Adeseye, Olamilekan Sanusi, and Miss Osugba Blessing are among the claimants who are in front of the court.
Organisations including the Take It Back Movement, TIBM, Education Rights Campaign, ERC, and Campaign for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, joined them.
The #EndSARS demonstrators in the lawsuit had said that police officers used tear gas and live ammunition, severely assaulted demonstrators, and made arbitrary arrests during the parade.
The detained #EndSARS protesters were reportedly detained for hours in a Black Maria (mobile detention cell) before being taken to Panti Police Station, where they were detained for four hours before being released, they claimed.
Hassan Soweto, the initial applicant and coordinator of the Education Rights Campaign, claimed in an affidavit that he and other #EndSARS demonstrators were wrongfully imprisoned without trial, mistreated, and subjected to tear gas.
#EndSARS, was a decentralised social movement and series of mass protests against police brutality in Nigeria that mainly occurred in October of 2020 which led to the killing of several youths by alleged uniformed men at Lekki toll gate
