In its report, which was leaked on Monday, just hours after it was submitted to the Lagos state government, the panel found that there had been 48 casualties, including 11 people killed, and four people missing, during what it described as a “massacre”.
The army did not adhere to its own rules of engagement and its conduct “was exacerbated by its refusal to allow ambulances render medical assistance to victims who required such assistance”, the report said.
For years, young Nigerians had cried out against the repeated and discriminate occurrences of torture, maiming, extortions, and even murder at the hands of operatives of a rogue police unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). These complaints exploded into two weeks of peaceful #EndSARSprotests across mostly southern and central Nigeria.
On the evening of October 20, 2020, a large number of peaceful youths were at a toll-gate plaza in Lekki, an upscale Lagos district, continuing the demonstrations despite a curfew.
“At the Lekki Toll Gate, officers of the Nigerian Army shot, injured and killed unarmed helpless and defenseless 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,”