By Martin Cole-
A government appointed panel in Lagos, Nigeria, has concluded that lethal violence committed by Nigeria’s military on the night of October 20, 2020 could be considered a “massacre,” directly contradicting past accounts of what happened at the Lekki toll gate where protesters against police brutality were killed after Nigerian security forces indiscriminately opened fire on those gathered there.
Its long awaited report accuses Nigerian Army officers of having “shot, injured and killed unarmed helpless and defenseless protesters, without provocation or justification, while they were waving the Nigerian Flag and singing the national anthem and the manner of assault and killing could in context be described as a massacre.”
The panel also found “the conduct of the Nigerian Army was exacerbated by its refusal to allow ambulances render medical assistance to victims who required such assistance. The Army was also found not to have adhered to its own Rules of Engagement.”
Its report, which was leaked on Monday, hours after it was submitted to the Lagos state government, matches earlier pronouncements by Amnesty International and CNN about the incident at the time.
The panel found that there had been 48 casualties, including 11 people killed, and four people missing, during what it described as a “massacre”.
CNN’s investigation found the Nigerian army fired live rounds into crowds at Lekki toll gate, killing and wounding several people.
The damning report said The army did not adhere to its own rules of engagement and its conduct “was exacerbated by its refusal to allow ambulances render medical assistance to victims who required such assistance”.
Serious complaints of torture, extortions, and even murder at the hands of operatives of a rogue police unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), culminated in two weeks of peaceful #EndSARSprotests across mostly southern and central Nigeria.
The defiance of a curfew by peaceful youths on the evening of October 20, 2020 at a toll-gate plaza in Lekki, an upscale Lagos district, led to the merciless bloodshed that claimed several lives of innocent people.
“At the Lekki Toll Gate, officers of the Nigerian Army shot, injured and killed unarmed helpless and defenseless protesters, without provocation or justification, while they were waving the Nigerian Flag and singing the National Anthem and the manner of assault and killing could in context be described as a massacre,” the report said..
An investigation by CNN last year that exposed the indiscriminate killings were repeatedly denied and condemned by Nigerian officials.
Ambulances were also prevented from entering the site to help wounded protesters.
. Lagos Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has said the Lagos state government would implement the panel’s recommendations, according to local media.
“This will help in proper restitution and compensation for everyone who must have been wronged. I want to assure you, a white paper will be issued. I am going to constitute a committee to review the document between two weeks and bring out a white paper,” Sanwo-Olu said, according to the International Centre for Investigative Reporting.
Around 70 victims of police brutality have been awarded a total of 410 million naira (around $1 million) as compensation, the chairperson of the panel, Justice Doris Okuwobi, was quoted in a statement released by Lagos State government Monday.
Cover Up
The panel’s report also alleges attempts of a cover-up attem by police, which ied to clean up the aftermath of the shooting at Lekki toll gate and failed to preserve the scene for investigators.
“The police officers also tried to cover up their actions by picking up bullets,” the report says.
It also accuses Nigerian authorities of tampering with CCTV footage and removing the bodies of the dead from the scene.
Disciplinary Action
The report also recommends that all members of the Nigerian Army except for one major general that were deployed to the Lekki toll gate face “appropriate disciplinary action and be stripped of their status,” before being dismissed.
“They are not fit and proper to serve in any public or security service of the nation,” it says.
It also recommends that the Nigerian army should be “discouraged” from intervening in the country’s internal security, adding that “the dark days of military rule is over and more democratic principles and approaches are required to win both the peace and public trust.”
The government, it says, should do “all it can to bridge the gap of distrust with the youth,” and calls for a monument to be erected at the Lekki Toll Gate with the names of the victims inscribed.
Reaction to the report led to an emotional outpouring on social media platform Twitter late on Monday night in Nigeria. Many young people have told CNN they feel vindicated by the findings.
“Tears filled my eyes. The truth needs no defense,” said DJ Switch, who live-streamed some of the events of that night and was later forced to flee the country.
Akin Olaoye, who was at the frontline of the protest that night, told CNN, “The findings of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry in its report defining the atrocities at the toll gate as a massacre, is a big win and leads us on a pathway to obtaining justice for many of the innocent victims, survivors and lost souls still lying in unmarked graves.”