Lekki was the epicentre of the #EndSARS protest which refused to wane, until the army brutally suppressed it
Nigerian military indeed opened fire at peaceful protesters at the Lekki Tollgate on the night of October 20, 2020, Lagos panel on #EndSARS has confirmed.
The Nigerian government has always denied that soldiers killed anybody at the scene of the Lekki protest, which information minister, Lai Mohammed, loves to describe as massacre without bodies.
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But the Lagos State panel on #EndSARS has confirmed in the 309-page report it submitted to the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, that no fewer than nine #EndSARS protesters were killed at the Lekki tollgate on October 20, 2020.
According to the report, nine protesters were confirmed killed by the soldiers and police at Lekki Tollgate on the night of October 20, 2020, while four others are missing and presumed dead also.
The report listed 48 names as those who were casualties of the Lekki incident of October 20, 2020.
Among the 48 #EndSARS casualties listed, 24 sustained gunshot injuries, while 15 others were assaulted by soldiers and police.
The killings, according to the panel, were started by the soldiers who fired directly into the protesters. When they left, policemen came to the scene and were shooting fleeing protesters.
The panel also noted that 96 other corpses were presented by a Forensic Pathologist of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Professor John Obafunwa.
Part of the report read, ”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 21, 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.”
