At about 6:45 p.m. on October 20,
men in military uniform arrived at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos in three Toyota
Hilux vans and almost immediately began shooting into a crowd of peaceful
protesters gathered there waving the Nigerian green-and-white flag and reciting
the national anthem.
Protesters and other witnesses at
the toll gate claimed several people were injured and killed in the shooting.
A popular Disc Jockey, DJ Switch,
who streamed the incident live on Instagram, claimed that the soldiers, after
the shooting, took the dead away. She also claimed that a team of police
officers arrived later to mop up after the soldiers.
She said the military initially prevented first responders and ambulances from reaching the injured but later allowed them through. She said she saw at least 15 corpses and claimed that security agents took the bodies away.
Several people who watched her
Instagram live broadcast claimed they saw protesters being fired upon by
soldiers. They said some protesters died of bullet wounds while others were
left with mild to critical injuries.
Similarly, a rights group,
Amnesty International, claimed 10 people were killed during the shooting at the
toll gate, and two others at the Alausa protest ground.
However, the Lagos State Governor,
Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who described the shooting as a “dark note in the history
of the state” and blamed the shooting on forces beyond the “direct control” of
his government, originally said no life was lost in the shooting.
He later admitted that two persons
died from the incident, one of them from blunt force trauma.
On Monday, during an interview on
CNN, Mr Sanwo-Olu continued to discredit the accounts of witnesses about the
number of deaths and wounded from the shooting. He said no bloodstain was found
at the scene of the shooting when he visited
“What has happened is that there
have been so many footages that were seen, that people have shown, but we have
not seen bodies,” he said. “We have not seen relatives, we have not seen
anybody truly coming out to say I am a father or a mother to someone and I
cannot find that person. Nobody has turned up. I have been to the ground, there
is no scratch of blood anywhere there.”
Despite accounts by witnesses and
video posted online, the Nigerian Army denied that its personnel fired upon
protesters.
The army initially claimed its
troops were not at Lekki that night. However, it later admitted that soldiers
were deployed on the request of the Lagos State government. The army, however,
insists that its personnel did not open fire on the protesters, let alone kill
any.
The Lekki Shooting: Checking the facts
Piecing together details of
on-the-ground reporting, credible information posted online by citizens,
accounts by witnesses and victims as well as information obtained from top
military sources, PREMIUM TIMES can now paint a clearer picture of what
happened at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20.
The newspaper’s investigative
team set out to unravel what actually happened on the evening of the shooting
and the hours that followed.
As this medium gathered evidence for this investigation, Sodiq Adeoye, an employee of research firm SBM Intelligence, informed one of our reporters after the shooting that some residents of Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase 1, a highbrow neighbourhood, about two kilometres from the Lekki Toll Gate, found a body floating in the lagoon just behind their houses.
Mr Adeoyo said the residents
suspected the floating body could be one of the protesters fired upon by
soldiers and alleged by witnesses to have been carried.
On this newspaper’s request, Mr
Adeoye sent a brief time-stamped video of the corpse floating in the water. A
Google map coordinate he sent indicated that the body was floating close to Bay
Lounge, an upscale restaurant.
At around 6 a.m on Saturday, accompanied
by a friend, Deji Ashiru, this reporter drove to the Nigerian Army Post
Exchange (NAPEX) Car Park Jetty in Victoria Island, where he and his team hired
a boat to search for the body.
As the boat approached the bank
of the lagoon, behind the imposing Oriental Hotel, the reporter saw a shanty
ahead. The shanty is on the left side of the Lekki Toll Gate if one was
travelling from Victoria Island. Due to its proximity to the toll gate, it
immediately occurred to the reporter that residents of the community might have
witnessed things that happened during the crackdown that was not yet in the
public domain. His instinct was right.
He told the driver of the boat to
stop his team at the shanty. It seems the residents had been waiting for
someone to tell the stories of what they saw on the evening of the shooting
because team members had hardly introduced themselves or even disembarked from
the boat when they started recounting gruesome details about the evening.
The residents, some of whom
suffered bullet wounds and other injuries, during the shooting, alleged that
several people were killed and injured by the soldiers. They also corroborated
the story told by DJ Switch and other protesters that after the shooting
soldiers took bodies of those killed away.
When asked if the protesters were
killed and whether they saw soldiers carry bodies away, one of the residents
said: “Of course, everyone saw it. Those that were present saw it.
“Even the one that died in our
presence, wey be say the ekelabe (policemen) carry am go. They shot am there,”
another resident said.
“Boss, if you want to camera, you
can camera,” said the second speaker who later identified himself as Ray.
“Let me tell you something. This
is my country. I am not afraid of anything. Let me say what I saw on that day.
I was here from the beginning to the end of everything. What the soldiers and
police did was absolutely wrong. Why would soldier come and shoot on us when we
were having a peaceful protest,” he said.
When asked if he saw soldiers
carry bodies away, Ray responded: “Of course, I saw dead bodies. They packed
bodies. They came with their vans. Their trucks.”
Ray, who expressed displeasure
that President Muhammadu Buhari did not mention the Lekki shooting in his
broadcast to the nation a couple of days ago, said Mr Sanwo-Olu visited the
scene of the shooting in the early hours of Wednesday and saw some of the dead.
“Why is Sanwo-Olu denying?
Because immediately after when that thing happened Sanwo-Olu himself came. He
came. He parked at the toll gate. He saw some dead bodies on the ground. Why is
he denying,” he asked.
Ray’s account of the event was
also corroborated by other residents of the community.
The residents also alleged that
after the soldiers who initially opened fire on the protesters left the scene,
police officers led by Raji Ganiyu, a chief superintendent of the police, and
the Divisional Police Officer of the nearby Maroko Division, arrived the scene
and continued the attack on defiant protesters who stood their ground despite
the military attack.
Showing us spent bullet casings
they collected at the toll gate after the shooting, they accused the team led
by Mr Ganiyu, whom they described as wearing a white native attire on the day,
of shooting and killing some protesters, including a mentally ill man who was
often seen around the area.
 |
| Bullet shells collected from Lekki toll gate by residents of the shanty |
“DPO of Maroko we see am face to face wey e blow one person
head pull the skull off. Pistol. E wear white and white,” one of them said in
Pidgin.
“Na only one him kill?” another resident interjected in
Pidgin. “What of the mad boy wey he shoot for our front here. Close range.
There was a guy that was abnormal, he was sat at that speaker. He just came
immediately, saw the boy, the boy didn’t do anything. He didn’t run, he didn’t
harass him, he just removed his pistol and blew the boy’s head,” yet another
resident said.
The Maroko Police Division is directly opposite the shanty
and on the right of the toll gate.
When reached for comments, Mr Ganiyu declined to respond,
saying all requests for comment should be directed to the Lagos Police Public
Relation Department.
Also, the police public relation officer, Muyiwa Adejobi,
said any question about the shooting incident at Lekki Toll Gate would be
decided by the judicial panel of inquiry set up by the state government into
alleged atrocities committed by law enforcement officers.
“No comment on this for now,” he said.
The narratives of the residents of the event of Tuesday
evening and Wednesday morning correlate with that of DJ Switch.
In a video posted on Instagram three days after the
shooting, DJ Switch spoke about the involvement of the police and explained
that it was one aspect of the shooting many were not talking about.
“Yes, there were soldiers there,” she said. “Another part
that people are not really talking about; the police also came. The SARS people
we are talking about also came. Maybe 40-45 minutes after the soldiers left.”
she said.
The Lekki Stampede
The residents explained that when the shooting started a
stampede occurred. They said some of the protesters ran into the community to
take cover from the bullets flying all around them and in the process injured
some of the residents of the community.
This reporter spoke to a mother who showed him the bruises
on the knee of her daughter, which she claimed she got during the stampede.
They said some of the protesters ran into the lagoon in the
panic that ensued. Agboola Kapko, a fisherman who lives in the community,
explained how he rescued some protesters who ran into the lagoon.
“I dey for that side (points) before dey start to shoot. Many people
run enter water. I can’t leave them like that to die so I help many people
comot for inside water and they come safe. I carry many people go another way,
go put dem and they follow that way go,” he said.
Mr Kakpo’s wife showed our
reporter her bruised and swollen hand. She said she sustained the injury when
she fell while trying to run from the shooting.
Lekki shooting and the floating corpse
After speaking with several
residents at the shanty, our investigative team left in search of the floating
corpse. Just about 300 metres after the toll gate on the Lekki-Ikoyi Bridge and
about 100 metres from Bay Lounge, they saw the corpse floating near the bank of
the lagoon.
The corpse was that of a man. It
was already swollen and decomposing. It was shoe-less. The dead man was wearing
blue denim jeans trousers and a flimsy white singlet. It also had a rubber band
on its left wrist. The man seems to be slightly bearded, but it was hard to
tell as a swarm of flies was already gathered around his decomposing face.
 |
| Picture of the floating corpse. He is believed to have died in the Lekki Toll Gate shooting |
“No scratch of blood”
– Sanwo-Olu lied
During the CNN interview, Mr Sanwo-Olu, in what appears an
attempt to discredit witnesses’ accounts of the shooting, said when he visited
the toll gate, he did not find a “scratch of blood.” However, video and photo
evidence verified as being from the incident as well as witnesses and victims accounts
of the shooting showed the governor’s claim as inaccurate.
One of the photos showed a young man wearing a zip
sweatshirt over a Versace t-shirt, with his head lying in a pool of blood.
Witnesses said that the man was shot in the head by the police officers who
arrived the scene after the soldiers left the scene.
Photo verification tools such as Google and Bing reverse
searchers and Tineye indicated that the photo had not previously appeared
anywhere else online.
WARNING: Graphic
image below. Viewers discretion advised
 |
| Photo of a man in a pool of blood |
In one video footage, some
protesters were seen tying a tourniquet to the badly bloodied leg of a victim
with a belt. The unidentified man wriggled in pain. He had been shot in the
leg.
In yet another video, a bloodied man laid lifeless, with the
Nigerian flag on his hand as a man tried to revive him.
In another footage, an elderly
man whose cloth was drenched in blood was seen lying beside another person who
had suffered bullet wound injuries.
Footages posted on Twitter of the
desolation at the Lekki toll gate the morning after the attack indicated a man
showing a large patch of bloodstain on the scene of the shooting.
This video was shot on 21st October, a day after the #LekkiMassacre. An eye witness walks around the Lekki Tollgate, showing blood stains of victims.#leadership #sanwoolu #SoroSokeGeneration #Rinu WE WILL NEVER FORGET
— Elevation News Today (@ElevationToday) October 27, 2020
Rest In Peace #LekkiTollGateShooting #BlackTuesdayNigeria pic.twitter.com/UQsvDlCuLT
Victims recount ordeal
When this reporter visited
Nicholas Okpe at the Emergency Unit of Grandville Hospital in Ajah, he could
barely sit up. He had a patch on his right chest where a bullet hit him. A tube
was attached just under his right rib cage that drains blood and pus into a
container placed on the floor. The bullet was still lodged in his chest while
the hospital waits for a consultant to further test before deciding how to
proceed.
 |
| Photo of Nicholas Okpe lying in the ICU of the hospital. He was shot at Lekki toll gate |
A doctor at the hospital, who identified herself as
Ikemefuna, said Mr Okpe was in a critical state when he was admitted, and said
he was lucky to be alive.
“He is getting better. He is not on oxygen anymore. God so
good it (the bullet) hit him on the right. It (the bullet) pushed his lung to
the side. He still needs further review,” she said.
 |
| Grandville Trauma Centre, Ajah |
Moved by the prospect of achieving an end to police
brutality, Mr Okpe did not just protest, he did more. He volunteered alongside
a handful of other youth to clean the protest ground at the end of each day’s
protest.
He told me his case was so critical that three hospitals
rejected him before Grandville accepted to treat him.
“The first hospital they said they cannot admit me,” he
said. “They poured honey where the bullet passed through and plastered and gave
me some injection. They said that will sustain me until I get a hospital that
can treat me.
“They took me to another hospital, they rejected me. They
took me to another they said they were not open. This is the fourth hospital
they came to. The man here said they should admit me if not I would have died.”
Mr Okpe said the blood and pus that were drained from him
filled the container four times already. He said he was in severe distress.
“I’m passing through a lot of pains. I am always in pain.
Anytime I cry out they will just give me painkiller and they will go. When that
painkiller expires the pain will come again. My head is just too heavy for me
with pains,” he said.
Mr Okpe also said he saw the soldiers took aim at the CCTV
cameras at the toll gate before he was hit.
 |
| Nicholas Okpe. Mr Okpe says he saw the soldiers took aim at the CCTV cameras at the Lekki toll gate before he was hit. |
Lekki Shooting Victim — Raymond Simon
All Raymond Simon wanted to do
was help. But his large heart almost cost him his life. Mr Simon told PREMIUM
TIMES he was not at the toll gate when the soldiers shot at protesters. A
church instrumentalist, he was at a rehearsal that evening. As he was returning
home on his motorcycle, he decided to take some of those injured during the
shooting to hospitals.
He said he was returning after
making the third trip from nearby Reddington Hospital when he was ambushed by
police officers at the toll gate who viciously attacked and abducted him.
“After I was stabbed, they
abducted me alongside a corpse. They were driving us around the area and I
suspect they were looking for where to abandon the corpse. When they got to
Ilasan area, they pushed me down. My hands were tied to the back,” he said.
He said the police officers drove
off with the other presumably dead person. He later managed to find his way to
a hospital where his wound was stitched, and he was given painkillers before
being discharged.
Mr Simon said after he was
attacked, one of the police officers tried to shoot him but one of his
colleagues pushed him away. He said another officer with a bayonet attached to
his rifle aimed to stab him in the neck, but he quickly moved his head and the
blade hit his chin.
He said his motorcycle was stolen
during the attack.
Lekki Shooting Victim — Bassey
A bullet hit Bassey in his right
hand as he mingled with other protesters at the toll gate. Unable to reach
first responders on time due to the blockade set up by the soldiers, he said
some residents of the area close to the toll gate removed the bullet lodged in
his left hand.
 |
| Photos of Divine Bassey |
Bassey appeared to be in severe pain and in urgent need of medical attention. He gingerly carried the swollen hand, with a huge wound in the spot where he was hit by the bullet, close to his body, as he spoke with this reporter. He said he has not received any treatment worth mentioning since he suffered the injury.
When PREMIUM TIMES returned to the shanty to check Bassey
the next day, our reporter was told members of the community had arranged for a
motorcycle to take him to St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos Island. Our reporter
went to St. Nicholas Hospital to check on him but was told nobody that fits his
description came there for treatment.
Bassey later returned to the shanty on Thursday. Fellow
residents said his condition had worsened as he is yet to get proper treatment
for his injury.
Lekki Shooting Victim
— Patrick Ukala
Mr Ukala was shot in his right arm. He said the bullet is
still lodged in his arm and that he had only received first aid and
painkillers. He was told by doctors at Grandville to do an X-ray of the arm
before the bullet can be removed.
 |
| Patrick Ukala was also shot at Lekki toll gate |
“I am still walking everywhere
looking for where to do x-ray but nowhere yet. They promise that I should come
back.”
Abandoned by Lagos Government
His account as well as those of
Messers. Okpe, Simon, and Bassey contradict the claim of the Lagos government
that protesters who were injured would be treated fully free of charge.
The victims said the state
government has not contributed a dime to their treatments. Some of them who
were originally treated are now being treated in other hospitals.
Mr Ukala said the bill for their
treatment was covered by one Ideh Chukwuma, a filmmaker.
On Sunday when our reporter
visited Mr Okpe at Grandville Trauma Centre, he met a team from the Lagos State
Ministry of Health, which came with its media crew to interview the victims. Mr
Ukala said that was the last he saw of any government official.
“Since the day you saw those
people (officials of the Lagos Ministry of Health) there they have never come
there neither did they speak with the doctor. Finally, the doctor has asked us
to leave.”
He said Mr Okpe was discharged
with the bullet still lodged in his chest. He also has not been operated on to
remove the bullet in his arm.
When Grandville Trauma Centre was
reached for comment, an employee of the hospital who gave her “professional
name” as Doctor Adebayo, confirmed that the victims had all been discharged.
“Some that need extra
consultations with specialists, we sent them there. We didn’t operate him (Mr
Okpe) here. Probably they will operate him wherever he went to,” she said.
Hospitals owners
accuse Lagos Government of intimidation
Following the shooting at the Lekki Toll Gate, some hospital
owners in Lagos complained to this newspaper that the Lagos State Ministry of
Health was using its Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency
(HEFAMAA), the organisation responsible for registering healthcare facilities
in the state, to intimidate them.
They said HEFAMAA sent out an online questionnaire
requesting details of injured #EndSARS protesters treated at their facilities,
a move they said could be used to “arm-twist” them into providing information
which might breach doctor-patient confidentiality rule.
They said they were particularly worried about the section
of the form requesting their registration number.
 |
| Screenshot of the form |
When reached for comment on
Wednesday, the spokesperson of the Lagos Ministry of Health, Tunbosun
Ogunbanwo, asked for questions to be sent to him via SMS. He is yet to respond
days after the inquiry was sent to him.
Link to the form:
https://forms.gle/XYY9EEw3ovzqYZiv5
#EndSARS Protests
The protest movement, which is
known as #EndSARS, demanded the dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad
(SARS), a tactical unit of the Nigerian Police, whose members were accused of
atrocities including extortion, rape, abduction, torture and extrajudicial
killings.
The protesters also asked for
investigations into the allegations against SARS personnel as well as the
immediate suspension of officers accused of committing atrocities.
At least for 10 days, the
protests, especially in Lagos and Abuja, were conducted peacefully despite
attacks on protesters by persons suspected to be pro-government hoodlums.
Within the period, no fewer than
11 protesters were killed by the police across the country.
In one instance in the Ketu area
of Lagos, on October 19, rival street gangs capitalised on the protests to
attack one another.
In the morning of October 20, the protests in some parts of
Lagos, especially at Orile and Mushin, turned violent after police officers
shot some protesters. The Orile and Mushin police stations were razed by angry
mobs. At least one police officer was lynched, and several others injured in the
riots that ensued.
The curfew
In a move to check the violence that was beginning to spread
across the state, at around noon on October 20, Governor Sanwo-Olu announced a
state-wide curfew with effect from 4 p.m that day.
The protesters at Alausa and Lekki Toll Gate, which were the
epicentres of the demonstrations, defied the curfew but remained peaceful.
Just after 3:30 p.m, officials believed to be from the
company managing the toll gate, Lekki Concession Company (LCC), arrived at the
toll gate and removed equipment initially thought by activists to be CCTV
cameras. Authorities later claimed that the CCTV cameras at the facility
remained intact and that its footages would be released to the panel probing
the shooting.
LCC officials accused
of removing cameras at the Lekki toll gate
Protesters who survived the attack said lights, including
streetlights and a large electronic billboard which illuminated the toll gate
area, were turned off just before the attack to possibly provide a cover for
the brutal assault on peaceful protesters that were to follow.
The advertising company that owns the electronic billboard at the Lekki toll gate, however, said it deactivated its facility in compliance
with the curfew declared by Governor Sanwo-Olu, unaware that tragedy would
later struck at the location.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com