Lekki Toll Gate Massacre And The Babel Of Lies

Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu 

 We may never know the full extent of the alleged massacre of peaceful and flag hugging protesters protesting against police brutality under the #EndSARS at the Lekki Toll Gate Plaza in Lagos by men in military uniform. This is because even though the Lagos State government under whose jurisdiction the massacre happened has set up a Judicial Panel of Inquiry to investigate Police Brutality and the Lekki Toll Gate Shooting there seems to be no passion to expose the truth. 

Lagos is run by an All Progressives Congress (APC) government that swept to power in 2015 with the mantra of change and clutching brooms to sweep away corruption that had characterized the 16 years administration of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), however, what the APC has largely done if you ask Nigerians is to sweep corruption under the carpet with their brooms or at best pretend that corruption has magically disappeared as a result of the much mouthed integrity of the leaders of the party. Therefore like the previous commissions of inquiry of the PDP that achieved nothing, many don’t expect anything different from the APC government in Lagos State. But the Lekki Toll Gate Massacre could be used to show Nigerian leaders that they cannot always get away with impunity banking on the naivety of the public, especially if the public remains vigilant and demand justice in the face of official obfuscation of the truth. And the truth is what Nigerians and the international community should be demanding on the Lekki killings. 

The Lekki killings which occurred on Tuesday, October 20, 2020, was streamed live by one of the protesters and the video went viral attracting the attention of some of the world’s biggest influencers and leaders. Since the sad incident there had been spirited efforts to cover it up with lies that has now reached to the sky and Nigerians taken as 'mumu' (fools) that have no brains. 

The first reaction of the Lagos State government after the incident was to claim that there were no deaths at the Toll Gate. Bombarded by backlash the governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu admitted that only one protester died. The army also claimed that it knew nothing about the Lekki incident, insisting that the soldiers who did the shooting did not come from its ranks. With the pressure mounting to unravel what really happened the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu embarked on public relations damage control and granted interview to CNN and the interviewer grilled him until he finally admitted that it was the army that did the shooting, and also quickly exonerated himself from the accusation that he ordered the shooting by stating that, “I am not the commander in chief” in obvious reference to the fact that a mere governor cannot order the military to carry out such an exercise. 

The interview of the governor raised the ante of concern in army circles that the military that said initially that it knew nothing about the Lekki killing retracted its earlier stand and said that it was invited by the Lagos State governor. A week after the shooting Nigeria’s army admitted that its soldiers were deployed to restore order, but denied they opened fire on the gathered crowd protesting against police brutality. At least 10 protesters were killed in the Lekki plaza shooting according to Amnesty International. The army had maintained that its troops were not at the site, but later, a military spokesman, Major Osoba Olaniyi, said soldiers were sent to enforce a curfew. He denied that the troops shot at the protesters.

Olaniyi said soldiers were deployed on orders from the Lagos State government due to “violence which led to several police stations being burnt, policemen killed, suspects in police custody released and weapons carted away.” Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, however, said the state has no authority over the national army. “It is imperative to explain that no governor controls the rules of engagement of the army,” he wrote on Twitter the day after the shooting. The army’s admission of being invited by the Lagos Governor begged the question where the genuine soldiers were when the “unknown soldiers” were shooting innocent protesters? 

To add to the drama the military has not been very cooperative with the Lagos State Panel of Inquiry even as the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, added another twist to the doubts over the sincerity of federal government ( which controls the army) to unravel the masterminds of the Lekki killings. Recall also that there were lies over the CCTV camera at the Lekki Toll Gate which was allegedly removed under suspicious circumstances on the day of the killings. There was a viral picture of an official of the company managing the tollgate removing the security cameras or demobilizing them, which led to suspicion of official complicity in the killings that later took place. The governor of the state was to later reassure the apprehensive public that the CCTV was intact that it did capture whatever happened at the Toll Gate that sad Tuesday and that it would be made available to the commission of inquiry. And in what seems like another layer of lies Nigerians were told that the CCTV footage at the Lekki toll gate stopped working at about 8 p.m. on October 20 and could not have captured any event including shootings that happened after that time on that day, an official told the judicial panel. The Judicial Panel of Inquiry set up by the Lagos State Government to investigate cases of police brutality and the Lekki Tollgate shooting, on Tuesday, received the CCTV evidence from the Lekki Concession Company. Abayomi Omomuwasa, the Managing Director of Lekki ConcessionCompany (LCC), the company in charge of Lekki Tollgate, presented the CCTV footage and other documents to the judicial panel. 

Speaking on the recording and footage, Mr Omomuwasa said around 8 p.m., the surveillance system stopped working due to network issue. “We never ever tamper with surveillance camera, as we probably will see in footage, that’s why we can see the footage, until some time later in the day around 8 o clock when it was tampered with and we couldn’t get any network anymore,” he said. Adding to the twist and turn, Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation (AGF), said it is likely that hoodlums wearing military fatigues — and not soldiers — shot #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki tollgate. Malami said it was “pre-emptive” to conclude that there had even been shootings, adding that “hoodlums” may have been hired to create a scene. 

The otherwise serious matter was turned comical when the minister of Works Babatunde Fashola ‘discovered mystery camera’ at Lekki Toll Gate when he led a federal government delegation on the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari to commiserate with the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu over the loss of lives and destruction of properties in the violence that rocked the state following the Lekki killings. The minister, who picked up the camera with an aid of a handkerchief, handed it over to Sanwo-Olu, said, “I think this will help with the ongoing investigations into the shootings at the Lekki Toll Gate. “It requires forensic analysis and could be used in the investigations to unravel the mystery surrounding the shootings at the Toll Gate, I believe.” Nigerians have made fun of the minister’s ‘discovery’ in a site that had been severally cleared of debris and other wastes by the Lagos environmental authority, thereby adding to the trust deficit of the government by the public! In other climes where the government is serious about unravelling the killings, such crime scene ought to be a restricted area manned by the police and other security agents in order to collect and preserve evidence, but this is Nigeria where a crime scene was turned to commensuration ground by government officials!