ENDSARS: DHQ speaks on Lekki Toll Gate shooting

The Defence Headquarters has declared it cannot comment on the allegations of soldiers killing #ENDSARS protesters at the Lekki Toll Plaza the first night of a 24-hour curfew the state imposed as violence escalated during the protest.

Footage showed the soldiers firing at in the air at about a distance from the protesters occupying the unlit facilities Tuesday night.

And there have been media reports of this footage  as overwhelming evidence officers from the 81 division of the Nigerian army killed no fewer than 20 protesters and Amnesty International also claimed the soldiers secretly buried the dead protesters corpses

But during a briefing in Abuja on Thursday, the Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. John Enenche, said his statement may prejudice the findings of the Commission of Inquiry set up by the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

“If the matter was still open-ended, I would have had a response for you but it is no longer open-ended, because immediately, not even up to five hours before midnight, the Governor of Lagos set up an inquiry.”

He however described the media and AI reports as mere allegations, noting that some military analysts had dismissed as untrue, claims that the troops were responsible for the killings.

According to Enenche, nine states across the nation have ‘Operation MESA,’ troops, a mixture of all the military agencies and police, usually activated for emergencies like this.

“So these operations are still standing and running and I am aware that the state governments are using them in all these capacities, that is internal security.

“The level we are now is internal security and that is why the police proactively came out and then deployed all their force package that are necessary to handle that (violence),” he noted.