Awka – A Rights Group, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre, RULAAC, says the report of the Lagos State Judicial Panel on EndSARS has lent credence to the fact- hitherto denied by many within and outside government- that there was massacre at Lekki Toll Gate.
According to the group, the report has also uncovered the disposition of the Nigerian Military and the Police towards extrajudicial killings, torture and brutality, in circumstances where they ought to have behaved in a more civilized manner.
The report of the Lagos State Panel as leaked on Monday, published the names of victims of the Lekki TollGate shootings during the ENDSARS protest of last year.
The Executive Director of the RULAAC, Mr Okechukwu Nwangwuma, who reacted to the report in a chat with TNC correspondent on Tuesday, regretted that the denial of such wrongdoings of the security agencies by government and security forces, remains the reason why such evil persists.
According to him, when the arguments raged over whether there were shootings at Lekki Toll Gate, he was not hesitant to argue that it was likely that such happened, based on the antecedents of the security agencies.
“I had argued in a recent interview/intervention on a debate as to whether indeed the military and police could have shot and killed protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020.
“I asserted that with or without evidence in the particular case of Lekki, it was plausible and likely that the military and police fired live ammunition into the assembly of peaceful protesters and took the victims away dead or seriously injured to cover up evidence. I said it has happened many times in the past,” Nwanguma said.
He recalled how in many instances of the military deployments and police interventions in protests or civil disturbances involving MASSOB, IPOB in the Southeast or the Shites in the North, the military not only shot and killed and seized dead bodies, but also went from hospital to hospital to arrest wounded people being treated and disappeared them.
“They often buried them in secret mass graves, often later uncovered.
“It happened during Peter Obi’s time as Governor of Anambra State. The military also buried- dead and alive- hundreds of members of the Shiites in mass graves in Kaduna as found by the judicial Panel of Inquiry set up by Governor El-Rufai of Kaduna State
“It was also during Peter Obi’s time as Governor of Anambra State that several floating dead bodies were found in Ezu River in Anambra State.
“Until Peter Obi completed his two terms as Governor and up to date, the truth about that scandalous tragedy has remained covered up.
“This was in spite of a Senate Committee investigation into the incident,” he regretted.
The Rights activist noted that the report of the Lagos State Judicial Panel on EndSARS has only lent credence to the fact that there was massacre at Lekki Toll Gate.
“I particularly like the recommendation that the date and scene of this atrocity should be memorialised.
“My thanks go to the patriotic, courageous and forthright members of the Lagos State Judicial Panel. History will be kind to you.
“I therefore appeal that the identified perpetrators of these heinous crimes and mass atrocities should be brought to account,” he pleaded.
