The Lagos State Head of Service,
Hakeem Muri-Okunola, Tuesday told
the Judicial Panel of Inquiries on Police
Brutality that injuries recorded in the
aftermath of the Lekki shooting were
predominantly fractures, machete
wounds, and minor cuts.

In his testimony, he gave oral, visual,
and documentary pieces of evidence in
respect to the Lekki shooting incident.

“These are some of the pictures of the
hospitals that we visited,” he said,
pointing at a projector showing visuals
of when the governor visited injured
#EndSARS protesters at the hospitals.

“In this Reddington hospital, these
individuals were injured in that axis,
some of them alluded to being injured
in a stampede of running, falling over
each other.

“Predominantly, there were about 13
people injured in Reddington Hospital,
Admiralty Way. The General Hospital
also had 12 patients. The doctors in
charge said there was one of those
patients that were being moved to
LASUTH, who had more severe injuries
from machetes’ wounds.

“At the time we were there, most of the
injuries were all in the nature of cuts,
bruises from machetes’ wounds, and
stampede. Nobody at the hospitals said
they were shot at.”

Earlier, the lawyer representing the
#EndSARS protesters, Adeshina
Ogunlana, argued that it is the
responsibility of the state governor,
Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to come forward
and testify.

But the panel chairperson, Doris
Okuwobi, a retired judge, said the
governor is not “compellable” because
he has been conferred immunity by the
Constitution under section 308.

In his testimony, Mr Muri-Okunola
noted that there has been controversy
about the actual number of alleged
deaths at the Lekki Toll incident. He
added that since October 22, 2020, many
of the people reported to have been
killed, including Nollywood actress,
Eniola Badmus, refuted their rumoured
deaths.

He listed the names of those rumoured
to have been killed to include Stephen
Becky, Iraby of Oto-Auch and Joshua
Ogbodo.

Others are “Anthony Chechukwu
alleged to have been shot by soldiers at
the Lekki tollgate has been confirmed
to have died in a motorcycle accident
and Lucia Adu who was claimed to
have died at the Lekki Toll Gate was
confirmed to have been killed in an
accident involving a stationary truck on
20th October 2020.”

Chronology

Mr Muri-Okunola, who gave a
chronological order of events from 8
October to 20 October 2021, said the
“protesters congregated in two major
hotspots” in the state, Alausa
Government House and the Lekki Toll
Gate.

On October 9, 2020, the state’s Deputy
Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, alongside
other officials, spoke to the protesters
who converged on the Lagos
Government House in Alausa, on their
rights to demonstrate peacefully and
shared foods and drinks with the
protesters, he said.

He noted that on 13 October, Mr
Sanwo-Olu again visited the protesters
and went “straight to the airport” to
present their five-point demands to
President Muhammadu Buhari and the
then Inspector-General of Police,
Muhammed Adamu and a ” statement
was released by the spokesman of the
President, Femi Adesina that the
Nigerian Government had agreed to the
five-point demand of the EndSARS
protesters.”

He said some days later, some “guerilla
protesters” hijacked the “noble”
demonstration which prompted Mr
Sanwo-Olu to announce a curfew.

“Violence escalated throughout the city
of Lagos, with hoodlums infiltrating
and… the peaceful protest of this
decentralized movement of #Endsars,”
he said.

“Across the city, young men were
manning makeshift checkpoints and
barricading major roads and stopping
cars on routes across the city. They
were not carrying the placards and
signs that had characterised earlier
peaceful protests. The lives of both
protesters and the rest of the citizens
alike were put in danger.

“Around 10.00 a.m. on the 20 of
October 2020, the only police station
was set on fire by suspected hoodlums
who had hijacked the EndSARS protest
in a reprisal attack fuelled by the
alleged shooting of one of them by a
policeman, hoodlums who had carted
away ammunition looted from various
police stations around the city
unleashed mayhem around the city
while destroying properties, mugging
innocent citizens and threatening the
lives of everyone that they came in
contact with.”

The Head of Service said Mr Sanwo-olu
confirmed two deaths, one of which was said to have
died as a result of blunt force trauma at Reddington hospital.

‘Shots were fired’

During cross-examination, Mr Muri-
Okunola confirmed that he heard that
military men from Bonny Camp were at
the Lekki toll gate and based on video
evidence they were armed and “shots
were fired.”

However, he said the police and the
army general in the state said that their
officers were not deployed to the Lekki
tollgate on 20 October 2020.

There are still controversies over the
role of the army in the shooting at the
toll gate. After armed soldiers opened
fire at the protesters, the army, while
appearing before the panel in
November last year, said their men only
fired live ammunitions and that no one
was killed. The position contradicted its
earlier claim that soldiers had nothing
to do with the shooting at the toll gate.

The army has since stopped appearing
before the panel.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/469386-lagos-endsars-panel-majority-of-lekki-toll-gate-victims-had-fractures-machete-wounds-minor-injuries-official.html

Story story

We know already.
The "massacre" was a big lie planted by anarchists and hoodlums to trigger violence.

The so-called bullets must have transformed into machete.

ivolt:
We know already.
The "massacre" was a big lie planted by anarchists and hoodlums to trigger violence.

The so-called bullets must have transformed into machete.

why was lekki tollgate CCTV cameras uninstalled on that very day ?

All I know is that karma will hunt all the principal people in low or high places that have a hand in the atrocities that were committed against innocent youth
You may escape here on earth, but we all have the good Lord to face one day.