Thread by @OrjiUka

Sometime in 2009 while serving as a Judge of the SUG High Court of Abia State University, Uturu I was appointed into a judicial panel of inquiry headed by my learned brother as he then was, Hon. Justice Ifeanyi Idika to investigate an act of alleged sabotage by Motorcycle Riders.

The background to this was that for years, Motorcycle riders in ABSU historically increased their fares during examination period to take advantage of students. So the SUG President devised a cerebral means to tackle this. He brought in competition by buying KEKE NAPEP tricycles.

I can't remember the exact figures but the tricycles were operating at half the regular fares that Motorcycles were going for. Something had to give. One morning the students woke up to the news that the KEKE NAPEPs had been grounded. How? Someone poured salts in their engines.

But for the quick thinking of the SUG President, there would have been pandemonium as the students were all convinced that the motorcycle riders were responsible and were hellbent on taking the law into their own hands and deal with the issue the way students know how to.

The President assured the students that he would get to the root of the matter. In this regard he set up an independent panel of inquiry with yours truly as a member. Deep down I truly believe that the essence of the panel was to unravel the truth & recommend punishments.

In truth the panel achieved its secondary objective which was to immediately restore peace and normalcy to the Union. I recall a Bike man who testified before us told me subsequently that we might have saved their lives and/or jobs because they really feared for their lives.

One thing I can't immediately remember is whether we were able to identify the culprits, which was the primary objective behind the establishment of the panel of inquiry. But can you really blame us?

That episode was like a light-bulb moment for me as I had realised first hand that the setting up of committees is one of the ways to assuage the public and restore normalcy. But it also made me wonder whether Nig Govts also employed this tool in less than honourable ways.

I finally got my answer this morning when I read that a serving Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Honourable Festus Key amount, SAN stated that the Lagos State Panel of Inquiry on the ENDSARS was illegal. Please see the link below for more.
thecable.ng/keyamo-lagos-e…

For the avoidance of doubt, I do not necessarily disagree with the views of Festus Keyamo, SAN. If anything I have in the past expressed similar views while we were all celebrating the establishment of the various States' panels of inquiry.

https://twitter.com/OrjiUka/status/1317782742264913921?t=d6jtIKFmNA9xDJnFlCw0HA&s=19

For those who don't read threads, the summary is that since the essence of the Judicial Panels of Inquiry is to investigate AND PUNISH acts of impropriety and brutality by the Nigerian Police, the State Governors have no powers to compel the Police to do anything. I repeat that.

Now my challenge is, did the learned Silk just realise that the panels are illegal? Did the panels become illegal sometime between October 2020 and October 2021? When the President/Vice President urge Nigerians to wait for the panel report, were they patronising Nigerians?