EXCLUSIVE: CNN investigation sheds new light on Nigeria’s anti-brutality protest | @StephanieBusari https://t.co/fa8jTtNnYo pic.twitter.com/3sae9ObfHA
— CNN Africa (@CNNAfrica) November 18, 2020
Sometime after midnight on October 21, Elisha Sunday Ibanga
answered a phone call from his older brother's number.
The person on the other end of the line -- a stranger --
broke the news that Ibanga's brother, Victor, had been shot dead at the Lekki
toll gate, in Lagos, Nigeria, where he had been peacefully protesting against
police brutality earlier that night.
"The person told me that the police took his body
away," Ibanga, 24, told CNN.
An eyewitness to Victor Sunday Ibanga's death told CNN the 27-year-old entrepreneur was shot in the head during the protest.
CNN has obtained and geolocated a photograph of Victor's
body lying in a pool of blood and wrapped in the white and green of the
Nigerian standard -- one of the same flags gripped by fellow protesters earlier
in the evening as they sang the country's national anthem. Ibanga confirmed the
photograph is of his brother.
 |
The body of Victor Sunday Ibanga is pictured in a pool of
blood. |
The Ibangas are one of several families yet to locate the
bodies of their missing loved ones -- protestors at the toll gate -- who dozens
of eyewitnesses say were shot at, first by members of the Nigerian army and
then hours later by police. Eyewitnesses told CNN they saw the army remove a
number of bodies from the scene.
What happened on October 20, and into the early hours of
October 21, at the eight-lane Lekki toll gate -- a key piece of Lagos' road
network -- has stunned the country.
The protesters who were present have told CNN it was a
"massacre" with multiple people killed and dozens wounded. But local
authorities have downplayed that account.
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, admitted to CNN
that footage showed uniformed soldiers firing on peaceful protesters but
claimed only two demonstrators were killed. But, he then said there was
"not a scratch of blood" at the toll gate when he visited. The
governor said no families had approached authorities saying they were missing
relatives.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the army denied
any involvement, describing reports of the incident as "fake news,"
before backtracking and saying that soldiers were present but fired their
weapons in the air and used blanks, not live rounds.
CNN's calls to the Nigerian army have not been returned. But
on November 14, during a judicial inquiry into the shooting, army
representative Brigadier Ahmed Taiwo said, "There's no way officers and
men will kill their brothers and sisters. I repeat no way. We have those who
constantly seek to drive a wedge between us and between the citizens of
Nigeria..."
The army also said at the hearing that it was the governor
who called soldiers to the scene because the police were overrun. The governor
has denied this, saying he does not have the authority to call in the army. The
army has continued to restate that they did not fire live rounds.
But an investigation by CNN into the disputed events has
cast doubt on authorities' shifting and changing statements.
Evidence of bullet casings from the scene match those used
by the Nigerian army when shooting live rounds, according to current and former
Nigerian military officials. Verified video footage -- using timestamps and
data from the video files -- shows soldiers who appear to be shooting in the
direction of protesters. And accounts from eyewitnesses establish that after
the army withdrew, a second round of shooting happened later in the evening.
Since Elisha Sunday Ibanga learned of his brother's death,
he has been visiting hospitals in a desperate search for his remains.
"My mother, my sisters, all my family are in prayer,
just to see if we can find out and know where my brother's dead body is," he
said.
The bodies of other protesters are nowhere to be found.
Peace Okon, 24, hasn't seen her younger brother Wisdom, 18,
since he went to the protest the night of the shooting.
"He just came back from work on that Tuesday, ate his
food and went there," Okon told CNN.
She started worrying when he didn't arrive home that night.
By the next morning, Okon was out searching for him. "I've gone to
hospitals, I've gone to police stations, I've gone to everywhere. I can't find
him," she said.
Her brother had only moved to Lagos a few weeks before the
protest -- Okon had helped him find a job as a cleaner at a bank. She says he
didn't know anyone at the protest and had never been to one before.
Okon said she wants the Nigerian authorities to tell her if
her brother is alive and detained or dead.
The shootings at Lekki toll gate followed weeks of
"#EndSARS" protests against police brutality that had burst onto the
streets of cities across Nigeria.
For almost a fortnight, thousands of young Nigerians mostly
under 30 -- a demographic that makes up 40% of the country's population --
protested, with calls for an end to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a police
unit widely and repeatedly accused of kidnapping, harassment and extortion.
Police had agreed to disband the controversial unit but
protests continued. It would be the fourth time it was being disbanded.
There were peaceful marches, candlelight vigils, multi-faith
prayer sessions and DJ performances that attracted backing and solidarity from
celebrities, the Nigerian diaspora and supporters around the world. The
movement quickly widened beyond police brutality to other grievances --
capturing the frustrations of a young population demanding an end to bad
governance in the oil-rich country.
Where the shooting
happened
Lekki toll gate is a key part of Lagos’ infrastructure.
Protests had happened there over several days
Lekki, a relatively affluent suburb of Lagos, and the toll
gate became a focal point of the movement.
However, about 10 days into the protests, the demonstrations
were hijacked by "thugs and sponsored hoodlums" who attacked
protesters, causing deaths and injuries, according to Amnesty International
Nigeria.
In response, on October 20, hours before the shooting,
Governor Sanwo-Olu imposed a strict curfew starting at 4 p.m. following looting
and vandalism in other parts of the state.
It was later moved to 9 p.m. to allow commuters to get home.
The timeline for when the curfew was imposed has become a point of contention
between the Governor and the military. The army said their soldiers were
unaware of the change to the later time, according to the army spokesperson's
testimony to the eight-person judicial panel on November 14.
For 24 hours, only essential service providers were to be
allowed on the streets of the 20-million strong city.
 |
| Demonstrators protest police brutality at the Lekki toll gate on October 20. |
Testimony from dozens of
eyewitnesses and family members interviewed by CNN and a forensic examination
of hours of video and dozens of photographs captured before, during and after
the two shooting incidents show how a fledgling protest movement was all but
extinguished by the very thing Nigerians were demonstrating against.
Less than three hours after the
original curfew time came into effect, army trucks left the Bonny Camp barracks
on Victoria Island and headed towards the toll gate plaza and the protesters,
according to videos reviewed by CNN.
Two eyewitnesses told CNN they
saw soldiers arriving in a Toyota Hilux pickup truck with "OP Awatse"
written on it -- the name of a joint military task force that operates in Lagos
State.
Videos examined by CNN show the
army trucks approaching the protesters from both sides of the toll gate --
barricading them in.
DJ Switch, a local musician whose
real name is Obianuju Catherine Udeh, was streaming live on Instagram when it
all happened and the shooting began.
The shooting started almost
immediately, with no warning given. Panic ensued as protesters attempted to
flee.
"Please expla
"There was a guy that was
running, and he just... he fell, and we looked at him. He was shot in the
back," DJ Switch, 29, told CNN, as she tried to talk during an interview
while crying.
"Please explain to me how,
in which part of the world, do you go to a protest with live bullets," she
said.
From multiple videos, CNN has
pieced together a timeline that shows that shooting by the army lasted from
6:43 p.m. until at least 8:24 p.m., according to video evidence.
The videos capturing some of those
101 minutes tell a story of terror and chaos. They show graphic injuries and
people bleeding on the ground.
One eyewitness, Sarah, whose last
name we're not publishing for her safety, told CNN that the soldiers shot in
the air but also directly at protesters.
"They pointed their guns at
us and they started shooting," she said. "They were shooting in the
air, they were shooting at us, they were shooting everywhere."
Some chanted: "We are
peaceful protesters" and "End Sars, we no go gree [pidgin for we will
not agree, or give in]."
"They're shooting, they're
shooting," another person screams in one of the videos. Cries of "Na
lie, na lie [exclamations of disbelief in pidgin]" can also be heard.
In several of the videos,
reviewed and verified by CNN, some of the protesters can be seen carrying
bodies, the flashlights on their phones the only thing illuminating the
darkness as the sound of ambulance sirens wail in the background. It is not
known whether these were dead or injured protesters.
In another, there are several
injured people, some on the ground bleeding while defiant protesters continued
to wave Nigerian flags.
Injured people whom CNN has
confirmed were present at the toll gate started arriving in local hospitals --
carried by civilians -- from 7:19 p.m. while the shooting was still ongoing,
according to videos analyzed by CNN.
 |
| One of the protesters, Mathew, pictured, says he was injured when the army opened fire at Lekki toll gate. |
CNN has also seen and verified
footage from one man who used his car as a makeshift ambulance and transported
people to hospital.
Separately, Dr. Ayo Aranmolate,
executive medical director at Grandville medical center, told CNN he and his
colleagues received around 15 injured people that night with various gunshot
wounds and cuts. None of the people they treated died, he added.
"We referred some for
treatment to other hospitals," Dr. Aranmolate said. "One of the
victims had to have his leg amputated."
The army has denied that anyone
was taken to hospital with gunshot wounds, and that they only shot into the
air.
Speaking in front of the judicial
panel, the army spokesman Brigadier Ahmed Taiwo continued to deny that anyone
was shot.
Multiple eyewitnesses told CNN
that ambulances were prevented from reaching the scene by the authorities.
A video filmed at 8:49 p.m.,
according to metadata, shows ambulance workers in a van at the scene saying
they are unable to get through.
When contacted by CNN to share
the findings of this investigation, a Lagos State government spokesman declined
to comment. "Talking about that subject now will be sub-judicial since the
matter is already before a panel of inquiry. Until the panel concludes its
investigation, the subject will not be open to any discussion or comment by any
State official," the spokesperson said.
 |
| Members of the judicial panel visit the Lekki toll gate on October 30. |
DJ Switch said she wanted people
to see what was happening which is why she started broadcasting.
"I didn't want anybody to
come on and twist the story. I wanted people to see. So, I just went
live."
At one point during the
broadcast, there were attempts to resuscitate a man in red clothing who had
passed out.
Later, DJ Switch can be seen
helping to extract a bullet lodged in another man's thigh as he screams in
agony. Someone in the crowd says, "you will live, you will not die."
As the live broadcast ends,
people are still trying to apply CPR on the man in red, while DJ Switch can be
heard saying, "this guy is dying."
DJ Switch told CNN that
protesters lifted bodies with bullet wounds and put them at the soldiers' feet.
"I said, why are you killing
us? Why are you doing this," she said. "He expressly told me: 'I am
acting on orders from above.'"
CNN has examined bullet casings
found at the scene and confirmed with current and former Nigerian military
sources that the bullet casings match those used by the army. Two ballistics
experts have also confirmed with CNN that the shape of the bullet casings
indicate they used live rounds, which contradicts the army's claim they fired
blanks.
 |
| CNN has verified that bullets fired at Lekki toll gate are from live ammunition. This one was manufactured in Serbia in 2005, and is currently in use by the Nigerian army. |
And working with the Balkan Investigative
Reporting Network, CNN has established that several of the bullets from the
Lekki toll gate originated from Serbia. Export documents CNN has seen show that
Nigeria purchased weaponry from Serbia almost every year between 2005 and 2016.
After the army withdrew from the
scene, members of the police, including the SARS police unit -- disbanded by
authorities on 11 October -- moved in, according to multiple eyewitnesses CNN
spoke with.
In a video obtained by CNN and
geolocated to Lekki toll gate at 2:36 a.m., one eyewitness, Legend, whose
second name we're not publishing for his safety, can be seen with the Nigerian
flag around his head saying, "...my hand is broken, my leg is broken, and
police are still shooting at us."
"I couldn't count how many dead because I was running for my
life." -Legend
"They are shooting anything
that moves outside...Stay safe through the night. And if I don't make it
through the night let it be known that I died fighting for our freedom, for
what we believe in."
Legend, who survived, told CNN
his father was a police officer and that he recognized the SARS uniform. About
200 protesters remained at the toll gate when witnesses say police and SARS
arrived, he added.
"I couldn't count how many
dead because I was running for my life," Legend said. "If I stood my
ground five more seconds, I would be dead."
While CNN has not been able to
independently verify that SARS members were present, multiple eyewitnesses said
they saw police officers, accompanied by officers from the unit, at the scene
after the army left.
A Lagos State police spokesman
declined to comment because of the ongoing panel investigation. But police have
denied any use of force against protesters on Twitter, saying, "....our
police officers never resorted to use of unlawful force or shooting at the
protesters."
The widespread looting and damage
that occurred across Lagos in the aftermath of the Lekki toll gate shooting has
led to the authorities clamping down on people who took part in the protests.
 |
| Workers clean up the Lekki toll gate on October 24. |
Many feel they are being scapegoated for taking part in
peaceful protests -- wrongly blamed for the looting -- and fear has descended
on the movement since the shooting.
Moe Odele, a prominent lawyer who was giving legal advice to
demonstrators arrested during the protests, says she was recently prevented
from leaving the country after her passport was seized. Odele told CNN that her
passport has since been returned.
The country's central bank has obtained a 90-day court order
freezing the accounts of those who took part in the demonstrations, according
to media reports, while a journalist who covered the protests was arrested and
detained for five days before being freed on bail.
Several eyewitnesses have fled the country, while others are
living in safe houses. Some told CNN they were offered money to recant their
initial testimonies.
CNN has seen some of the messages received, though it is
unclear who is sending them.
"We're hiding because our lives are in danger," an
eyewitness named Sarah told CNN. "We can't go out, our jobs are on hold
right now, and it's really sad because we did nothing wrong."
"All we did was ask for change."
culled: CNN
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