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It has been 165 days since the occurrence of the Lekki massacre and the question, who ordered the shooting? Still lingers and as well, some people still believe the live Instagram video by Dj Switch, CNN investigative reports, and others are fallacious.
On Thursday, in a statement released by the United States of America about Nigeria insecurity, the Lekki massacre was touched briefly and the reports say there are ” no accurate information on fatalities.”
The US reports read in part; “On October 20, members of the security forces enforced curfew by firing shots into the air to disperse protesters, who had gathered at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos to protest abusive practices by the Nigerian Police Force’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). Accurate information on fatalities resulting from the shooting was not available at year’s end. Amnesty International reported 10 persons died during the event, but the government disputed Amnesty’s report, and no other organization was able to verify the claim. The government reported two deaths connected to the event. One body from the toll gate showed signs of blunt force trauma. A second body from another location in Lagos State had bullet wounds. The government acknowledged that soldiers armed with live ammunition were present at the Lekki Toll Gate. At year’s end, the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry and Restitution continued to hear testimony and investigate the shooting at Lekki Toll Gate.”
Reacting to the report the Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB), a coalition led by Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana quote the US report about the Lekki massacre as misleading.
On October 20, 2020, Nigerian Soldier had open fire on peaceful protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate. A movement tagged #EndSARS which aimed at calling the Nigerian government to end the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) whose report of misconduct has become a national challenge and poses threat to the lives of Nigerians as much as it has taken based on testimonies that surfaced on Social media and at the EndSARS Judicial Panel set up after the protest.
Amnesty International said people died of gunshot injuries, a live Instagram video by Dj Switch reports the Soldiers in action and fatalities, but the Nigerian government debunked it and there is the US report which also said no accurate information on the fatalities.
In ASCAB statement, it accused the US of “attempting to cover up the killings”.
“It is a very contradictory report. On the one hand, the report claimed that the members of the security forces were enforcing curfew by firing into the air to disperse protesters at the toll gate,” reads a statement issued by Falana on behalf of the coalition.
“On the other hand, the report stated that some protesters had turned violent after criminal elements infiltrated them, and so the security forces fired protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate. The report did not mention the detachment of the Nigerian army which perpetrated the mayhem.
“Do soldiers shoot into the air to enforce curfew in the United States?
“The media should stop treating our people like colonial subjects by celebrating a foreign report that is subversive of the rule of law in Nigeria. How can the United States Government be allowed to treat the proceedings before a properly constituted Judicial Panel of Inquiry so contemptuously?
“The report is prejudicial in every material particular. It should be ignored by the Judicial Panel as it is designed to preempt the evidence being adduced by the survivors of the barbaric attack.
“The report did not acknowledge that the Nigerian army, which initially denied that soldiers were present at the Lekki toll gate, later turned round to admit that they were there but fired only bland bullets. The Americans should update the report by explaining how casualties and amputees were recorded when the soldiers only shot into the air.”
Falana also said the Governor of Lagos state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had earlier admitted that protesters were treated for gunshot wounds.
He, however, wondered if the US government is not aware that some amputees who lost their legs as a result of the shooting have appeared before the judicial panel set up by the Lagos government to look into the matter.
The senior lawyer added that the Lagos government has also invited people whose family members were missing to identify the corpses at the Lagos state mortuaries.
“Did the Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB) not disclose that there were 98 corpses dumped in the mortuaries? From the information at my disposal, 3 of those corpses have been traced to Lekki,” he said.
“I also know a lady who disclosed that her adopted son died of gunshots at Lekki toll gate.
“My law firm has taken up the case of a 28-year-old lady who collapsed at Lekki with a head injury and later died at a hospital in Lagos.”
Falana made known that the names of the casualties and amputees will be revealed at the right time.
He urges the US government to review the reports on the incident as he expressed dissatisfaction about the Washington report on the Lekki shooting, “the unreliable report compiled in Washington,” He said.
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