EndSARS panel says 9 killed, 4 presumed dead, another 96 corpses listed by a forensic pathologist could have been victims of the massacre
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Muhammadu Buhari’s crimes against humanity are piling up. The International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague is keeping a tab on him and he will not be too old to go to jail when he leaves Aso Rock in 2023.
Buhari should ask former Presidents Jacob Zuma (South Africa), Nicolas Sarkozy (France), and Radovan Karadzic (Bosnia); all of whom know about jail terms after leaving office.
The EndSARS panel has asked him and his attack dogs to “publicly apologise to the youth” for squelching their protest and for killing them. That is not enough.
Buhari’s false prophets Lai Mohammed and Femi Adesina should also gird their loins for a life in prison. All the three men know that even if they evade human justice, they cannot evade the final judgment of God, which is far worse.
Soldiers do not shoot without an order.
It was Buhari who, as President and Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces, ordered troops to shoot and kill unarmed youth protesters at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos on October 20, 2020.
And Buhari must carry the can now that the EndSARS panel has finally affirmed the truth the public knew all along that soldiers killed peaceful protesters and took their bodies away to hide the evidence – so they could deny murder.
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Buhari and his cohorts exposed as serial criminal liars
The panel reports that nine protesters were shot dead, four presumed dead, and another 96 corpses on a list supplied by a forensic pathologist, “some of [whom] could have come from the Lekki Toll Gate Incident of October 20, 2020.”
The casualty figure was far higher than the public thought, and certainly higher than the 12 compiled by Amnesty International. Indeed, the panel noted that the death toll could be “far and beyond the list tendered.”
Before Buhari’s violence and intimidation against youths were further exposed by the report on Monday, he had been throttling lies and misinformation and about the massacre through his false prophets, Lai and Adesina.
Lai – Buhari’s Information Minister who proudly wears his callousness and lies as a badge– vehemently and aggressively denied reports that soldiers killed the protesters, rubbishing the tales of murder as “massacre without bodies”.
When CNN published a well investigated true report on the massacre, Lai pounced on the respected global broadcaster, accused it of sabotage, demanded an apology, and threatened it with sanctions.
Obianuju Udeh, a disc jockey called DJ Switch, did a live stream of the army shooting at the protesters at Lekki. She said at least 15 persons were shot dead and several others received injuries of varying degrees.
Then, in fear of her life, DJ Switch went into hiding.
She later told a Canadian parliament that soldiers who shot at the unarmed protesters told her they were acting on “orders from above.”
Lai, the greatest of Buhari’s lying and propagandist ministers, held a press conference in November 2020 where he mocked DJ Switch as a “purveyor of fake news” and threatened that she would soon be “exposed for who she is.”
Adesina – Buhari’s spokesman who inhabits a planet different from the one other human beings are familiar with – skirts over his principal’s incompetence, injustice, and wickedness by diverting attention to his infrastructure projects.
Nigerians know, however, that they are getting poorer and hungry. They also know that infrastructure projects Buhari touts are means by which his officials collect bribe, inflate contracts, and steal cash outright.
The panel poured cold water on such propaganda and asked Buhari and his henchmen to publicly apologise to the youth.
“That for the purpose of restitution, healing and reconciliation the federal government needs to publicly apologise to the youth for abruptly undermining the protest with their state actors.”
Massacre with bodies to prove it
Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu set up in October last year the Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and Other Matters.
The panel, chaired by Doris Okuwobi, a retired Judge, submitted to him on Monday a report spanning 309 pages.
It listed the names of 48 people who were casualties of the murders at Lekki on October 20, 2020. Apart from the nine dead, 24 received gunshot injuries and15 were assaulted by soldiers and police.
The panel also noted that 96 other corpses were presented by a forensic pathologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Professor John Obafunwa, per reporting by The PUNCH.
Full list of known casualties
Bodies removed, evidence scrubbed
The report reads in part:
“The evidence before the panel shows that after the Nigerian Army left, Nigeria Police Force, followed up with the killing of the protesters, shooting directly at fleeing protesters into the shanties and the Lagoon at the Lekki Phase 1 Foreshore, close to the Lekki Toll Gate, floating corpse and one shot close to Serah Ibrahim.
“Several unidentified bodies were removed by security agencies and LASEHMU (Lagos State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit) and deposited at various hospital mortuaries in Lagos State.
“Three trucks with brushes underneath were brought to the Lekki Toll Gate in the morning of October 21st October, 2020 to clean up the scene of bloodstains and other evidence.
“The testimony and report of Professor John Obafunwa, a forensic pathologist of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, showed that three corpses were deposited at the Mainland Hospital, Yaba Hospital, all from the Lekki Toll Gate and the autopsy conducted thereon revealed death from bleeding caused by penetrating objects or rifled weapon.
“The panel finds that the fact of lack of identity of some of the other 96 corpses on the list supplied by Professor Obafunwa would not obliterate the fact that some of them could have come from the Lekki Toll Gate Incident of October 20, 2020, or that some other unidentified corpses may have been removed by their families or the military, as claimed by the #EndSARS protesters, far and beyond the list tendered by Professor Obafunwa.”
Sanwo-Olu inaugurated on October 19, 2020 to investigate complaints of against human rights abuses by the police. When protesters at Lekki were killed the next day, he expanded the terms of reference of the panel to cover the incident.
The panel sat for over one year, listening to testimonies of petitioners, witnesses, experts, and lawyers. It treated 235 petitions and awarded N410 million as compensation to 70 victims.
Killings a massacre, says panel
The killings can be equated to a “massacre”, the panel said in its ‘Report Of Lekki Incident Investigation Of 20th October 2020’, which has not been released by Sanwo-Olu but was leaked by Enough is Enough Nigeria, a civil advocacy.
Page 294: “The atrocious maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters, while sitting on the floor and waving their Nigerian flags, while singing the National Anthem can be equated to a ‘massacre’ in context.”
Page 295: “It was alleged and corroborated that the soldiers had their vans parked at the Lekki Toll Gate and removed as many bodies and corpses of the fallen protesters which they took away with their vans.”
Panel recommendations
In its recommendations, the panel insisted that all those involved in the attack on youths should face the law.
“The Panel recommends that the Lekki Toll Plaza be made a memorial site for ENDSARS Protest: By renaming to ‘ENDSARS TOLLGATE’.
“The panel recommends that October 20th of every year, the day is made a ‘Toll Free Day’ at the Lekki Toll Gate as long as the tollgate exists
“That Oct 20th of every year be made EndSARS day Nationally for the remembrance of our falling youth.
“That for the purpose of restitution, healing and reconciliation the federal government needs to publicly apologise to the youth for abruptly undermining the protest with their state actors.
“The government should do all it can to bridge the gap of distrust with the youth.
“A monument memorialising the lives lost and those injured at the Lekki Toll Gate with the names inscribed on the Monument.”
Panelist says #EndSARS killings are ‘crimes against humanity’
Ebun Adegboruwa (SAN), a member of the panel, told The PUNCH that “the panel believed that crimes against humanity took place at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020.”
The human rights lawyer also disclosed that “major actors found culpable” were named in the report.
His words: “Specifically for the Lekki Toll Gate Investigation, we set up certain crucial issues for determination, as to:
- “whether there was any protest at the Lekki Toll Gate, the nature of the protest,
- “the presence and mission of soldiers at the Lekki Toll Gate,
- “whether blank or live bullets were shot by the soldiers,
- “whether there was any death and if so, the numbers involved,
- “whether there was any massacre at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020, and if so, what evidence is available in proof thereof,
- “whether the police were at the Lekki Toll Gate and if so, whether they shot and killed the protesters, et cetera.
“The panel answered these questions truthfully, frankly, and courageously, based on the evidence led before it, believing that the crimes against humanity that took place at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020, would never happen again in our nation.
“In particular, the panel affirmed the rights of the people of Nigeria to constitutionally guaranteed freedom of lawful assembly and peaceful protests, freedom of association, and freedom of expression.
“The panel made far-reaching recommendations concerning the major actors that were found culpable, in order to achieve true healing and reconciliation.
“We have done our work in the best way that we could. Nigerians should demand justice against all culprits who have been named in detail, in our report.”
Adegboruwa threatened to make the report public if Sanwo-Olu fails to do so.
“I will however keep observing the turn of events and at the appropriate time, one may be forced to state the full contents of the report if the promises made are not fulfilled.
“I can NEVER and will never subscribe to anything that would amount to covering up the report of the panel.”
