Femi Falana, a popular Nigerian human rights lawyer has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sanction the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed; the Attorney General of Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) and all others who tried to cover up the shootings at the Lekki toll gate on October 20, 2020, for complicity.
Falana call was sequel to the recent report of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and other matters that at least nine persons were confirmed dead at the Lekki toll gate when soldiers stormed the venue to disperse EndSARS protesters on October 20, 2020.
Meanwhile, Lai Mohammed in a series of press conferences had denied any killings of peaceful protesters by Nigerian soldiers on the stipulated date and had threatened to sue Cable News Network and other international bodies that claimed otherwise.
Malami had also said those who attacked the youths at Lekki toll gate weren’t soldiers but wore military camouflages while the LCC had allegedly removed the closed-circuit television at the toll gate in a move that had been widely described as a cover-up.
But on Monday the Judicial Panel set up by the Lagos State Government to probe the alleged case submitted its reports to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu which indicated that indeed there was a massacre at the Lekki Toll Gate.
The 309-page report stated, “The atrocious maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters while sitting on the floor and waving their Nigerian flags and while singing the National Anthem can be equated to a massacre in context.”
The panel, however, recommended that all army officers deployed in the Lekki tollgate should be made to face appropriate disciplinary action, stripped of their ranks and dismissed as they were not fit and proper to serve in any public or security service of the nation.
Sanwo-Olu, who received the report on Monday, constituted a Committee to bring forward a White Paper within the next two weeks to be considered by the Lagos State Executive Council.