It's more than a week now since the unfortunate Lekki Tollgate incident against peaceful #EndSARS protesters. The only thing we've heard is the denial of wrongdoing from all sides. A day after the attack, the governor of Lagos state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the attack was perpetrated by "forces beyond our control".
The Nigerian Army denied reports that it deployed soldiers to Lekki Tollgate as fake. However, they have now admitted that soldiers were deployed there but they deny the fact that they shot at the protesters despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The federal government has said that it will not speak on it until investigations are completed. So essentially, the public is being held in denial of what truly happened on Tuesday.
From amateur videos that were recorded at the venue, what we do know is that men dressed in military fatigues shoot at protesters at the Lekki Tollgate. It was more suspect that CCTV cameras installed at the tollgate were removed minutes before the soldiers got there. In fact, DJ Switch started an Instagram live session to update Nigerians on what happened, But amazingly, the military has maintained that their men did not shoot protesters.
Interestingly, the United States claimed to have thoroughly studied the shooting of #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki Tollgate. Daily Post reports that the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) has stated that images and footages showing the charge by military personnel are not fake.
The United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo has asked for the prosecution of all officers and men involved in the shooting. “The United States strongly condemns the use of excessive force by military forces who fired on unarmed demonstrators in Lagos, causing death and injury. Those involved should be held to account in accordance with Nigerian law," he said.
“The right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression are essential human rights and core democratic principles. We call on the security services to show maximum restraint and respect fundamental rights and for demonstrators to remain peaceful.”
The medium goes on to say that an American source discloses that the authenticity of the video was "triple confirmed". But what Nigerians are still being told eight days after is that investigation is still on. This is very unfair to Nigerians and the many victims of the attack at the tollgate.
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