#EndSARS shooting: LCC footage reveals military trucks arrived Lekki Toll Gate

Footage relayed on Saturday at the Lagos Panel of Inquiry by the Lekki Concession Company (LCC) revealed that trucks of the Nigerian Army actually arrived  the Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos State, before the shooting of unarmed #EndSARS protesters began on the evening of  Tuesday October 20.

The  video presented at the Judicial Panel of Inquiry and Restitution of the Lagos State government investigating police brutality and extrajudicial killings, revealed several trucks conveying army officers arriving at the Lekki Toll Gate at about 6.43pm on Tuesday, October 20 before the shooting of the unarmed #EndSARS protesters at the protest venue.

Reports from live broadcast of the incident indicated that the light at the tollgate was put off to cover up the crime but some youths braved it to record the shooting as the guns sounded and the bullets sprayed.

Counsel to #EndSARS protesters, Adeshina Ogunlana, who had earlier accepted the presentation of the video protested after about three hours, that the footage is not the one that should have been played. The argued that a particular recording was skipped, pointing out that he was given tapes tagged t1 and t1 full.

Meanwhile, proceedings at the investigation panel show that the applied logic of government agents to cover up the facts of the incident are becoming weak as the realities bare gradually being revealed. Intimidation and volunteers of dubious fact-finding agents ordering people with evidence of death to come forward, promising financial rewards, will soon backfire as the violent actors are beginning to admit their involvements after earlier denial of participation.

The Nigerian Army had earlier denied involvement in the Lekki shooting, describing the reports as fake news and the videos as photo shop. The Army, however, in subsequent appearance at the Panel admitted the deployment of military personnel on the request of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu after imposing 24-hour  curfew in the state as the peaceful #EndSARS protest was hijacked and became violent.

Governor Sanwo-Olu had also denied knowledge of the invitation of the Army, but after the Army revelation, the governor admitted invitation but not with order to shoot protesters.

The Commander of the 81 Military Intelligence Brigade, Brigadier Ahmed Taiwo, had also disclosed that the army only used blank ammunition on the protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate. However, after the CNN investigative report, the Brigadier last Saturday admitted that the Army went to the Lekki Toll Gate with live billets and blank bullets. He, however, insisted that no one died in the incident.

It is obvious that the facts are being unveiled at the proceedings of the Investigation Panel which could lead to ultimate revelation of the actual occurrence on the Tuesday night at the Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos.