#LekkiMassacre: Malami In 2020 Said Hoodlums In Army Uniform Might Have Shot Protesters

The report submitted on Monday to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu by the Lagos State Judicial Panel on Police brutality has revealed that #EndSars protesters were shot in 2020 at the Lekki Toll Gate by operatives of the Nigerian Army.

Ezenwoko’s Blog reports that the governor received two reports from the Chairperson of the panel, Justice Doris Okuwobi (rtd). at the State Secretariat in Ikeja on Monday.

The panel submitted a consolidated report on police brutality and the investigation of the Lekki incident.

A section of the report which dealt with what transpired at the Lekki Toll Gate on the night of October 20, 2020 confirmed that soldiers deployed to the toll gate shot at innocent #EndSARS protesters, killing some of them.

“The Nigerian Army was invited for intervention in the State and was deployed to Lekki Toll Gate on the 20th of October 2020. 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 reads in part.

The panel report added further that Police operatives also shot harmless and innocent #EndSARS protesters during the Lekki Toll Gate incident and picked up the bullets to cover up their tracks.

“The panel found that the Nigerian Police Force deployed its officers to the Lekki Toll Gate on the night of the 20th October, 2020 and between that night and the morning of the 21st of October, 2020, its officer shot at, assaulted and battered unarmed protesters, which led to injuries and deaths. The police officers also tried to cover up their actions by picking up bullets.”

The report further seemed to have also answered the age-long question on who invited the soldiers to the scene when it said: “The panel found that there was an invitation of the Nigerian Army to Lagos State made by the Lagos State Government through the Governor before the hierarchy of the Nigerian Army deployed its soldiers to the Lekki Toll Gate on the night of the 20th of October.”

However, amidst the shocking revelations been unveiled by the monumental report, Nigerians have started questioning the basis upon which the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami had in 2020 told citizens of the country and the international community that those who shot at the Lekki Toll Gate incident were probably hoodlums who just wore army uniforms.

Malami had made his submission barely two weeks after the unfortunate Lekki Toll Gate shooting, even suggesting that it was too early to conclude that any shooting took place at the scene.

He had said, “hoodlums” may have been hired to create a scene.

“You cannot rule out the possibility of perhaps hoodlums that set in to create a scene… could equally partake in the process,” the AGF said.

The submission has now been punctured by the report submitted by the Lagos Panel on the Lekki incident.