EndSARS: Ogun governor dragged to court for not releasing report of judicial panel

Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State has been dragged to court for refusing to make public the report submitted to him by the Ogun Judicial Panel of Enquiry into police brutality and extra judicial killings.

Abiodun was sued alongside the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwasina Ogungbade, by a lawyer, Festus Ogun.

Festus Ogun had earlier in a letter, invoked the Freedom of Information Act, asking Abiodun to release, within seven days, the report of the panel he set up after the #EndSARS protest in 2020.

However, the legal practitioner said he had filed a motion ex-parte against the governor over “his failure, neglect and refusal to accede to the FOI request concerning the release of the Ogun State EndSARS panel report.”

In suit no: M/264/21, brought pursuant to Sections 1(3) and 20 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011 and Order 40 Rules 1(1) and 3(1)(2) of the High Court of Ogun State (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2014, the lawyer is seeking “an order granting leave to the Applicant to apply for judicial review and to seek an order of mandamus directing and or compelling the Respondents whether by themselves and/or their agents to disclose and or make available to the Applicant the information requested as contained in a letter dated 18th November, 2021concerning the submitted report of the Ogun State Judicial Panel.”

Contacted, the new Attorney General of the State, said steps are underway to ensure the report is out either before the year runs out or in January, 2022.

“Yes, you know when there is a report like that, there will be some internal procedures to be followed, and we are still working internally and since I assumed office about three weeks ago, I have stepped up action on it.

“I can assure you that either before the year runs out or very early in the new year, there will be more positive things to tell you,” Ogungbade said.