Keyamo brands #EndSARS panels illegal, confirms Twitter agreement with Nigeria

The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, on Sunday questioned the legality of the judicial panels of inquiry set up by state governments to investigate cases of police brutality across the country.

Keyamo, who appeared in a programme on Channels TV, was responding to a question on the Federal Government’s position on the leaked report by the Lagos judicial panel of inquiry.

He said: “I will not answer this question as a sitting minister.

“I will answer this question as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and so, I am entitled to my own opinion. This is not the Federal Government’s position.

“For me, that panel was an illegal panel.”

The minister’s comments came days after the panel in its report indicted the operatives of the Nigerian Army and Police for complicity in the shooting of #ENDSARS protesters at Lekki toll gate on October 20 last year.

Keyamo also revealed that Twitter has agreed to all the conditions laid out by the federal government regarding its operations in Nigeria.

READ ALSO: Nigerian govt to review #EndSARS panels’ reports

The minister added: “The reason why the President took that step is to recalibrate our relationship with Twitter and not to drive them away from our country.

“That recalibration, we have started it and the President graciously added me to the committee.

“We also set up a technical committee to interface with Twitter and come up with a lot of conditions for them to fulfill for us to lift the suspension.

“It was Twitter that reached out to the Federal Government to say they want to know what and what they can do to straighten up the relationship with the Federal Government and so, we have gone far but I may not, at this forum, let out a lot but we gave them a lot of conditions and they have agreed to all the conditions.”

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