The manner of the unprovoked and unjustifiable killing of unarmed and peaceful #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki tollgate on October 20, 2020, was a massacre, says the Lagos judicial panel.
“At the Lekki Tollgate, officers of the Nigerian Army 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 and the manner of assault and killing could in context be described as a massacre,” the panel said in its report.
The manner of the unprovoked and unjustifiable killing of unarmed and peaceful #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki tollgate on October 20, 2020, was a massacre, says the Lagos judicial panel.
“At the Lekki Tollgate, officers of the Nigerian Army 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 and the manner of assault and killing could in context be described as a massacre,” the panel said in its report.
After the Nigerian soldiers unleashed war-grade violence on the protesters, killing several of them, the Nigeria Police Force took over from them and continued the unprovoked, wanton violence. The police killed more protesters as they fled into shanties and Lekki Phase 1 Foreshore, close to the Lekki tollgate.
Both the army and the police denied firing shots at the protesters, asserting the only shots fired were into the air to scare off the unarmed protesters.
The military chiefs under whom the heinous crimes were committed have had non-career ambassadorship conferred upon them, which Nigerians condemned as an attempt to shield the ex-military leaders from prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
