The United Kingdom (U.K.) Parliament has finally rolled out sanctions against officials of the Nigerian government following the alleged killing of unarmed protesters at Lekki toll gate, Lagos.
This is even as the British Parliament vowed to sanction soldiers and police officers over their alleged roles in the Toll Gate massacre, Oct. 20, while the #EndSARS protests lasted.
Igbere TV understands that the sanction by the British Parliament comes as an outright condemnation of police brutality, human rights abuses and killing of unarmed protesters.
We had reported how the U.K. Parliament, on Monday November 23, met to debate the petition to impose sanctions on individuals in the Nigerian government and police officers involved in human rights abuses.
The petitioner, Silas Ojo, had earlier revealed that the petition garnered over 220,000 signatories, surpassing the 100,000 benchmark required for every petition to get the attention of the U.K parliament.
Tension pervaded the atmosphere on the floor of the U.K. parliament as members took turns to analyse and subsequently criticize the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari over the handling of the #EndSARS protests nationwide.
Citing the shootings at Lekki, well as the unjust victimization of protesters after the protest and the freezing of protesters accounts, parliamentarians described the Buhari’s administration as nothing short of a dictatorship.
The lawmakers recommended sanctions on government officials and security agents such as visa ban, freezing of assets and stopping the funding and training for the Nigeria Police Force.
The Parliament said the UK government must explain the role of the government in training Nigerian security agents who end up abusing the rights of the Nigerian citizens.
They described as undemocratic, the claim by the Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that the killings at toll gate was fake.
The U.K. parliamentarians unanimously adopted the sanctions while the debate lasted at the Westminster Hall on Monday evening, as monitored by Igbere TV, online.
All chamber members spoke across ideological divides to condemn the U.K. Government for standing neutral while the Nigerian government violated rights of young protesters.
Members unanimously agreed that state actors and their family members should not have access to the freedom(including medical attention), liberty and security they deny their citizens at home in the UK.
