Atrocious killing of unarmed protesters at Lekki toll gate
on the night of October 20, 2020, can be equated to a ‘massacre’ in context,
the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS
Related Abuses and other matters has said.
The Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel made this known in its
report submitted to the Lagos State Government on Monday.
In the report, titled, ‘Report Of Lekki Incident
Investigation Of 20th October 2020’, a copy of which was sighted by our
correspondent, the panel said at least 48 protesters were either shot dead,
injured with bullets wounds or assaulted by soldiers who stormed the Lekki toll
gate on October 20, 2020.
Although the Lagos State Government has not released the
report, civil advocacy group, Enough is Enough Nigeria, has.
Page 294 of the bulky 309-page report partly read, “The
atrocious maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters,
while sitting on the floor and waving their Nigerian flags, while singing the
National Anthem can be equated to a ‘massacre’ in context.”
Also, page 295 of the report said, “It was alleged and
corroborated that the soldiers had their vans parked at the Lekki Toll Gate and
removed as many bodies and corpses of the fallen protesters which they took
away with their vans.”
In its recommendations, the panel emphasised that all those
involved in the attack on youths should be made to face disciplinary measures.
It also stated, “The Panel recommends that the Lekki Toll
Plaza be made a memorial site for ENDSARS Protest: By renaming to ‘ENDSARS
TOLLGATE’.
“The panel recommends that October 20th of every year, the
day is made a ‘Toll Free Day’ at the Lekki Toll Gate as long as the tollgate
exists
“That Oct 20th of every year be made EndSARS day Nationally
for the remembrance of our falling youth.
“That for the purpose of restitution, healing and
reconciliation the federal Government needs to publicly apologize to the youth
for abruptly undermining the protest with their state actors.
“The Government should do all it can to bridge the gap of
distrust with the Youth.
“A monument memorializing the lives lost and those injured
at the Lekki Toll Gate with the names inscribed on the Monument.”
The panel report negates the consistent claim by the Federal
Government of Nigeria that there was no massacre at the toll gate, a focal
gathering point during last year’s nationwide demonstration against
extrajudicial killings and police brutality by operatives of the now-defunct
Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force.
Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, had staunchly
maintained that the Lekki incident was a “massacre without bodies” and had
threatened to sue Cable News Network and another international media house that
claimed otherwise.
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Shame on all of you that were asking for the bodies!
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