How the ICC investigations can help the #EndSARS movement

A lot has transpired in the course of getting justice for victims of the #EndSARS movement. From what started as denial became reluctance, the Lagos and federal governments has been anything but straightforward in its ‘confessions’ and ‘promises’.

For instance, Lagos’ Babajide Sanwo-Olu promised that investigation would commence on the shootings while the Federal government directed that judicial panels be constituted across all the states, and confirmed the availability of footage from the CCTV around the Lekki toll gate plaza.

However, much to the chagrin of Nigerians, the agency in charge, LCC, through its managing director, Abayomi Omamuwasan, said that the recordings would not be useful because the cameras stopped working at 8 pm. Questions were duly raised concerning the time gap given that the shootings were believed to have started long before 8.

When this is thrown in the same fray with the serendipitous discovery of a ‘camcorder’ by Agent Fashola Holmes, then the ostensible patterns of irregularities start to justify the fears of many Nigerians that the judicial panels may not provide the justice they desperately seek.

Those fears could be quashed with the latest development that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is set to commence preliminary investigations into alleged crimes during the #EndSARS protests.

If it is established that the allegations are worth taking up, then the actors on the Nigerian political scene could be in for prosecution beyond their jurisdiction and long hand of power. Prosecution and possible conviction by the ICC spell quite a number of implications for those involved, prominent or not. 

Even though the ICC as a judicial institution does not have its own police force, it is readily backed by countries across continents as well as the United Nations. Hence, it can make arrests, freeze assets of suspects and enforce any sentence it delivers through similar means. People can be declared wanted worldwide and detained upon discovery.

As such, this will not be welcome news for political leaders embroiled in the #EndSARS controversies but will be a delightful development for Nigerians clamouring for justice home and abroad. It could eventually drive more openness in the ongoing business of the judicial panel of inquiry.

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