Lekki shooting: Military jittery, prevents panel members from inspecting military Hospital

Following the public outcry that greeted the alleged shooting of unarmed #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki toll gate last week and the subsequent set up of a Judicial Panel by the Lagos state government to unravel what actually happened, the Army on Friday prevented the panel members from inspecting military hospitals and morgue.

The panel, headed by Justice Doris Okuwobi (Rtd), acting on intelligence, had stormed the Military Hospital in Ikoyi, but met a brick wall when soldiers manning the gate at the Military Hospital in Ikoyi prevented them from assessing the hospital’s mortuary.

It would be recalled that some witnesses of the Lekki shooting accused the military of taking away the bodies of those killed in the incident.

But the panel’s visit abruptly ended, after an initial resistance they got at the gate of the hospital, which lasted for about 30 minutes.

Ebun Adegboruwa, a member of the panel, told soldiers, who stopped them at the gate that the panel came to the hospital because it had intelligence that might help with its investigation.

“If we are not allowed access, we will go back and take other actions. We won’t force ourselves in. We have confidential information that the military hospital here is relevant in the investigation of the Lekki event. We heard this hospital is controlled by 65 battalions and under the 81 division. We are also taking steps to reach military authorities.”

Adegboruwa said though the panel does not have evidence that there are bodies of those killed at the tollgate in the hospital, it was at the facility to verify the claim.

Earlier, the panel had also visited the Lekki Toll Plaza, where it discovered five bullet shell casings at the Lekki Tollgate Plaza, the scene of the October 20 shootings of #EndSARS protesters by officers of the Nigerian Army.

The Panel was received by Mr. Abayomi Omomuwa, the Managing Director of the Lekki Concession Company (LCC) and Mr Gbolahan Agboluwaje, the Head of the Legal Department of LCC and the media.

Some five bullet casings were seen on the floor, inside the gutter and the stairs of the Tollgate plaza by people present there.

Omomuwa, during the visit, told the panel that the Close Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras mounted on a mast at the toll gate area were working during the shootings.

He, however, noted that though the footage of the happenings of Oct. 20 had been captured by the CCTV, it is currently not working due to damage caused by hoodlums during the carnage of Oct. 21.