CAPPA adds: “The maiming and shooting of unarmed #EndSARS protesters will forever remain a dent in the history of our nation and a tragedy that cannot be forgotten.”
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Kamsi Ibeh, an eyewitness to the killing of peaceful protesters at Lekki tollgate on October 20, 2020, says the second anniversary of the gory event makes her feel like being killed the second time.
The first death would have been when soldiers arrived at Lekki Tollgate and killed her protesting colleagues.
Recall that the protest had lingered for 12 days, and the government was becoming desperate to quell it.
On that fateful day, October 20, 2020, the Lagos State Government earlier declared a curfew aimed at dispersing the crowd at Lekki Tollgate. That failed. Then the soldiers came, about a hundred of them in war mode. The light went out, and bullets started dropping the protesters dead. According to the Lagos State Government Panel Report, no fewer than nine persons were killed by either gunshot or military assault, four were missing and 24 others seriously injured. The government tried to cover it up, but for the courage of a few individuals, including Kamsi who testified at the Panel. She courageously appeared before the Lagos State Government Panel on EndSARS and laid the facts of what transpired that night of October 20, 2020.
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A few days after she testified, four men brutally stabbed her for daring to demand justice. “This girl from panel, shebi na una sabi pass, una no wan step back abi?“ said one of her attackers while using the machete on her.
Two years after the Lekki Massacre, justice has eluded the victims. Kamsi said it makes her sad. “I feel terrible. I feel disappointed. I feel like being killed the second time.”
She added: “I didn’t only witness a shame to my country, I witnessed an injustice, not just for the living, but for the dead, the heroes who lost their lives on that tollgate.”
Policy and Research Lead at Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Zikora Ibeh, said the cruelty of the Lekki Massacre, would never be forgotten. “The #EndSARS protests of October 2020 was not just a movement, it was an awakening of national consciousness, and a loud call by the Nigerian youths for social justice and good governance. It’s quite unfortunate that despite the tragic termination of the protests by Nigerian security operatives on the night of October 20, 2020, and the chaos that followed afterwards, including the inauguration of Judicial Panels of Inquiry across states in the country to investigate the issues of police violence, nothing much has changed even now.
“The status quo remains the same with police officers still operating with impunity, panel findings and recommendations unaddressed and unimplemented, and victims of police violence yet to receive appropriate recompense. Until true justice is served, and the Nigerian State divorces itself from all forms of oppression and discrimination of civic actors and citizens in general, we will never heal from the wounds of the #EndSARS protests of October 2020,” she said.
“In truth, the maiming and shooting of unarmed #EndSARS protesterrs will forever remain a dent in the history of our nation, and a tragedy that cannot be forgotten!”
Back to Kamsi, insult was added to a bad sore when a prominent denier of the Lekki Massacre, Retired General John Enenche, was offered a seat on the Campaign Council of the Labour Party, a movement fuelled by EndSARS activists. Although he was immediately removed after an uproar, Enenche had claimed that the bodies of the massacred protesters were photoshopped.
Kamsi, in a calm voice said of Enenche: “So, Enenche, one thing I pray, It will happen to him. And we will turn back and say it’s a photoshop.”
Here’s an excerpt from the interview with Kamsi
How do you feel that two years after the shooting at Lekki, no justice has been served to the perpetrators?
I feel terrible. I feel disappointed. I feel like I’m being killed for the second time. I didn’t only witness shame to my country, I witnessed an injustice, not just for the living, but for the dead, the heroes who lost their lives on that tollgate.
We went to the street to ask for justice, ask for peace, to ask that they should end the killing of innocent Nigerians, to end police brutality, to end SARS. Now, the same thing we went to the street to ask for, unknown to us, came back in double fold. We were not just massacred, but we were killed in cold blood. And the same government that perpetrated the evil, went behind to say that they are all fallacies, they are all photoshopped, they are all film tricks. How can we play a film trick on human lives, how can we play a film trick on the dead? How can we play a film trick on those who are at the hospital trying to recuperate from their bullet injuries? How can we play a film trick on those who before the 20th of October, 2020, were sound and healthy with their children? Only for the 20th to happen to them, and their whole lives are thrown into a mess. When I mean in a mess, because they are handicapped, they can’t do what they used to do. Some of them can’t think like adults again. They now reason like toddlers, just because Nigeria happens to them. Yet, the same Nigeria that happened to them, came back to say nothing happened to them. Now, somebody expects me to be happy. I cannot be happy because justice is still yet to be served.
Those that attacked you, have any of them been figured out or arrested?
None has been figured out. Even now, if I see them I can’t recognize them. What happened is like a flash. You know the way NEPA (the now defunct electric company) will bring light and they will take it in the next minute. What crime did I commit? Just because I was bold enough to go to the panel as patriotic Nigerian youth to say this thing happened. I am a living witness to that event. Now, they came back to me to silence the remaining one they cannot do, and yet God prevailed. That’s all I can say because if it was by my power, I have none.
That day at Lekki Tollgate, did you personally see corpses?
I did not just see corpses, I saw bodies, dead bodies. If there is any word to emphasise the dead bodies, I will use it.
When you heard that General Enenche was offered a seat on the Labour Party Campaign Council, how did that make you feel?
He (General Enenche) said it was photoshopped. One thing I pray is that the day his family will die in cold blood, it will be a photoshop for him. It’s not a curse, it’s a reality. They said when you are pointing at somebody with a finger, don’t forget that the remaining fingers are pointing back at you. There is something my father always say, that ‘when an individual feeds a community, the community will finish the food and still ask for more. But when a community decides to cook for that individual, that is trouble coming.’ Now, they believe they can use their power, they can use ammunition, they can use weapons, they can use guns to disperse us when we gather, but they forget that when the gathering of angels happens, nobody can stand. So, Enenche, one thing I pray will happen to him. And we will turn back and say it’s photoshop.