Obiano gets 2 weeks ultimatum from youths over EndSARS panel

By Chukwudi Ndubeze

Youths in Anambra state have given the state government a two weeks ultimatum to reconvene the EndSARS panel and give justice to victims of Police brutality in the state.

Speaking during the a press briefing, Chibuike Emmanuel Udeh a.k.a Bugatti, warned that the youths have not given up on their agitation but are only watching the government do what they claimed they will do.

He reminded them that the youths will not fail to move back to the roads in protest if government fail to deliver justice to victims of Police Brutality.

“That everybody is stepping down for the panel proceedings does not mean we are stopping the agitation for justice. If by two weeks from now, we don’t get any positive from government or the panel, we will be forced to the streets again.

“I am not a member of the panel but I was frequenting the panel sittings. We all got involved in the EndSARS as passionate people who wants a new beginning for our dear state, Anambra. We want a new beginning in another dimension. Not the dimension that government has led us into.

They said that the panel willl be all inclusive but. I have always witnessed the panel sittings and there is nothing like presence of Rev father, town union or traditional leader. If the govt wants sth today, they knows how to ho about it.

Recall that the state government like every other state in the country, last October, initiated a judicial panel of Inquiry following the agitations by youths for disbandment of the police following reported cases of intimidation, brutality and abuse of human rights.

The youths who at a press briefing in Awka, Sunday, declared their withdrawal from the judicial panel following alleged government neglect, said that their resolve was made after the state government failed to play its role in seeing the success of the panel.

Addressing the journalists, they said that the panel was not only abandoned by the state government but characterized by inefficiency and poor organization because the state government failed to adequately provide the logistics for things involved in the proceedings of the panel.

They accused the government of having no regard for the victims of the police brutality and many human rights violation in the state insisting that the state government totally ignored the panel which according to them were simply set up to play to the gallery.

They claimed that some of the abused victims and other interested stakeholders have been on their neck in their bid to know why the panel has failed to sit despite more than 250 petitions which have not been attended to.

Earlier, Chijioke Ifediora, a young lawyer and a youth representative from the judiciary said the EndSARS panel involves people who lost their lives, children and who were extremely dehumanized by the police. He said that government have started playing games with the panel and would not want to dent his image in their games.

“It is taken forever to reconvene the panel. People are now having the perception that we have collected money from government or that we are now in a romantic relationship with the government.

“That was not the reason I was appointed into the panel. I’m here to represent the youths and the aggrieved.

“We don’t want to be part of the EndSARS game of the government. I know that if government wants to do something, they will give it their best but now that it is about peoples fundamental right, they are playing games,” Chibuike concluded.