The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and other matters might have vindicated the International Cable News Network, CNN which about a year ago described the Lekki shooting “a massacre.”
The panel in its report indicted the army and police for shooting unarmed protesters at the Lekki Tollgate on October 20, 2020.
Recall that the Nigerian government had insisted no one was killed in the attack on protesters at the Lekki Tollgate.
But, CNN had published an investigative report claiming soldiers fired live ammunition directly at protesters at the Lekki toll gate.
Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had vehemently protested against the CNN’s report, saying the news platform had practiced what he called “irresponsible journalism” by relying on fake videos sourced from social media to produce its report.
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But reacting to Mohammed’s allegations, CNN said it stood by its report on the alleged shooting of #EndSARS protesters by soldiers at the Lekki toll plaza on October 20, 2020, as the report was “carefully and meticulously researched.”
However, in its report, which it submitted to Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Monday, the panel noted that at least 48 protesters were either shot dead, injured with bullet wounds or assaulted by soldiers who stormed the Lekki toll gate.
“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,” the panel said in its findings.
The panel, which listed 48 casualties from the Lekki shooting, noted that 11 were confirmed dead, four missing and presumed dead, while others suffered gunshot injury, severe assault among others.
The Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel, which asserted that the report is a product of extensive evidence taken at the public hearings with key stakeholders and pertinent role players appearing at the hearings, stressed that it believes the testimony of Dr Babajide Lawson that the situation at the Lekki Branch of Reddington Hospital on the night of October 20, 2020, could be termed as a case of ‘mass casualty’.
READ ALSO: EndSARS: Lagos Panel reportedly indicts Nigerian Army, Police, says they shot live bullet, killed Lekki Tollgate protesters
It added that the testimony and report of the Forensic Pathologist from the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, showed that three corpses were deposited at the Mainland Hospital, Yaba Hospital, all from the Lekki Toll Gate and the autopsy conducted thereon revealed death from bleeding caused by penetrating objects or rifled weapon.
It said from all available evidence including video evidence of the Lekki Concession Company, LCC and those of Serah Ibrahim, it is without a doubt that the military did not just use blank ammunition at Lekki Toll Gate, but also live ammunition.