The ennobled #ENDSARs protests came to a grinding and violent halt on the night of October 20th when soldiers opened fire on the crowd of peaceful protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate. Or at least this is the version of the incident that the people tell while the defence apparatus in the country has countered this narrative with several, changing versions of their view of the incident.
Well, the debate around the happenings on the night of October 20, 2020, can finally be laid to some rest as the report of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry sitting in Lagos has been made public.
After months of hearings and investigations, yesterday, the Judicial Panel of Inquiry presented its report to the Lagos State Governor, Bababjide Sanwo-Olu. The report presented is a 309-page document that has headings structured as questions and findings listed as answers to the questions raised.
So what did the panel find?
Yes, Peaceful Protesters Were Killed
The report held that the protest on the 20th of October, 2020 was peaceful and it also held that men of the Nigerian Army, specifically, the 65 Battalion acting under 81 Division Garrison under the command of Lt Col. Bello were deployed to the Lekki Toll Gate.
The report stated clearly that the Nigerian Army opened fire and shot, injured and killed unarmed helpless and defenceless protesters, without provocation or justification, while they were waving the Nigerian Flag and singing the National Anthem.
Yes, There was a Massacre
The panel adopted the Merriam Webster definition of the massacre as ‘the act or instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty.’ And by this definition held unequivocally, that the manner of assault and killing carried out by men of the Nigerian Army on October 20, 2020, at the Lekki Toll Gate could be described as a massacre.
The panel finds that some sets of cameras stationed at the Lekki Toll Gate were removed by members of Staff of LCC in October 2020, and they were not tendered before the panel. According to the Panel, the cameras would have assisted the panel in its investigation into the incident that occurred on the night of the 20th October 2020.
Yes, the Police and the Army Lied
The report found the statements made by the representatives of the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian police force to be contradictory to the evidence provided by eyewitnesses.
Brigadier General Taiwo who represented the army admitted that the troop deployed to Lekki Toll Gate carried blanks and live ammunition. Although the Nigerian Army stated that they only fired shots with blank bullets into the air in order to disperse the protesters.
However, the testimonies from the Reddington hospital confirmed the eyewitness accounts that live bullets were fired by the Nigerian Army, as the hospital noted that bullet injuries were treated at their facility.
The Lekki Conservation Centre (LCC) which was on the ground noted that the Nigeria Army shot at protesters and disrupted their activities on the 20th of October 2020.
Forensics experts (Sentinel Forensics Ltd) engaged by the Panel, also corroborated that there was the use and discharge of live ammunition at the Lekki Toll Gate on 20th October 2020 which resulted in injuries and deaths.
All the Army had to refute these claims were the words of an officer who was not even present and the JPI found their rebuttal insufficient.
The JPI held that from all available evidence, it is without a doubt that the military did not just use blank ammunition at Lekki Toll Gate. That the soldiers actually shot blank and live bullets directly and pointedly into the midst of the protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate, with the deliberate intention to assault, maim and kill.
They further stated that the medical evidence on the nature of the injury sustained by the protesters and cases of death were results of the deployment of live ammunition as confirmed by the forensic experts, Sentinel Forensic limited and Oxygen consulting UK limited.
Asides from the Army, the panel held police officers were also at the Toll Gate from the 20th to the 21st of October. When the Nigerian Army left, the Nigeria Police Force followed up with the killing of the protesters, shooting directly at fleeing protesters into the shanties and the Lagoon at the Lekki Phase 1 Foreshore, close to the Lekki Toll Gate. The police also brutalized and injured protesters around the Lekki Toll Gate including Onilewo Legend and threatened several people.
The Maroko Division (the Division that oversees the Toll Gate) of the Nigerian Police signed out a total of 73 Rifles on October 20, 2020. 66 Rifles were signed out during the day and 7 during evening duty. According to the Panel, on normal days, officers usually collect an average of 15 to 20 rounds. However, on the 20th of October 2020, a lot of officers collected 30 to 40 rounds, with some collecting as many as 60 rounds.
No, the Protest on the 20th was not Hijacked by Hoodlums and Army Intervention was not Needed, At All
The JPI refuted the Army’s claim that after 2-3 days a protest can be hijacked by hoodlums, noting that the EndSARS protest at Lekki Toll Gate, in particular, was peaceful and orderly and was not hijacked by hoodlums.
The Panel underscored that the presence of protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate did not threaten the territorial integrity of Nigeria and could not be considered as a civil insurrection to warrant the intervention of the Nigerian Army.
The Panel noted that the Army did not comply with their own Rules of Engagement in the conduct of their operation at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020, and that soldiers turned back ambulances that were invited to render first aid and assistance to the wounded protesters.
JCI Recommendations to Government
33 recommendations were made by the panel on follow-on actions, some of these recommendations include that the Government should do all it can to bridge the gap of distrust with the Youth. It also recommended that the Lekki Toll Plaza be made a memorial site for the ENDSARS Protest by renaming it “ENDSARS TOLLGATE”. Also, that October 20th of every year is made EndSARS day, a nationally-recognized day for the remembrance of the fallen youths.
With respect to punishment for erring officers, the Panel recommended that all officers (excluding Major General Omata) that were deployed to Lekki toll gate on October 20, 2020, be made to face appropriate disciplinary action, stripped of their status, and dismissed, noting that they are not fit to serve in any public or security service of the nation.
Chioma Agwuegbo, the Executive Director of TechHerNG spoke to Dataphyte on the released report. She commended the Lagos Judicial Panel for completing an assignment that no other panel, across the other 28 states who set up panels, have completed.
But their just released conclusions feel anticlimactic and are almost eclipsed by the sufferings and trauma, both physical and psychological, that have been endured by innocent Nigerians attacked by the very forces against whom they were protesting for over one year. “It took a whole year to validate evidence that was very clear from the beginning, one full year; time and resources that could have been deployed towards support for victims of these heinous acts and reforming the system that made it possible for such an act to have taken place in the first place.”
Chioma also expressed concerns about the veracity of the recommendations of the JCI, given that several of these recommendations specifically on reform of the police force have been presented to the executive and none of them has been adopted or executed. She further said that the police and the army, indicted in this report, are federal institutions and states have no power over them thus making any recommendation from this panel not different from all the other panels that have been convened before it.
She challenged stakeholders across the spectrum of the fight for rights to take on advocacy on the recommendations of the Lagos Judicial Panel as with other such recommendations with renewed fervour. “ The report presents an opportunity for the next layer of advocacy for the recommendations to be enacted.”