Youth representatives boycott Lagos Judicial Panel after CBN froze #Endsars promoters’ accounts

During the recent nationwide protests against police brutality, the Lagos State Government set up a judicial panel to investigate cases of police brutality in the state, especially those committed by men of the recently-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

The panel led by Justice Doris Okuwobi (Rtd) comprises lawyers, a retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police, a founding member of SARS, representative of the civil society groups and youths representatives.

But on Saturday, November 7, 2020, the youth members of the panel decided to boycott the sitting after the Central Bank of Nigeria froze the accounts of 19 individuals adjudged to be promoters of the nationwide protests.

According to Editi Effiong, a film producer, the youth representatives pulled out of the sitting in protest because the bank account of one of them, Bolatito Rachael Oduala, better known as SavvyRinu was frozen by the CBN.

Reacting to the freezing of her account on Friday, Oduala, whose name is the first on the list of the Endsars protesters whose accounts were blocked by the CBN jokingly said the government must have thought of her as a criminal who protested against police brutality without carrying any arms.

However, before the youth representatives boycotted the panel’s sitting, Oduala was said to have been seen at the venue of the sitting wearing #endsars shirt.

Due to the boycott, the panel has suspended its sitting until Saturday, November 14, 2020.