Nigerian entertainer, DJ Switch has taken to social media to react to a report by the Lagos panel confirming that #EndSARS protesters were shot and killed at the Lekki tollgate on October 20, 2020, by armed soldiers.
This was revealed on Monday November 15, by the Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel which made available a 309-page report submitted to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State.
The panel also indicted soldiers and implicated Nigeria’s security agents in the “killing and forced disappearances of harmless and unarmed youths protesting at Lekki Tollgate on October 20, 2020”.
In her reaction to the report by the Lagos panel on Twitter, DJ Switch said that so many lives were shattered and those behind the killings also tried to destroy hers.
The disc jockey also noted in her post on the microblogging site that what the perpetrators tried to hide, has also been made public by them.
The report which is yet to be made public as promised by the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, clearly found the Nigerian Army and police fired live bullets at peaceful protesters at the Lekki Tollgate on October 20, 2020.
It also concluded that the “deliberate absence of officers of the Nigerian Army who were present at the Lekki Toll Gate and who were summoned by the Panel was a calculated attempt to conceal material evidence from the Panel”.
According to SaharaReporters, the panel in its report found
“From the evidence of General A.I.Taiwo (Commander, 81 Military Intelligence Brigade, Nigerian Army, Victoria Island, Lagos) on pages 6, 7, 21, 22, the Panel finds that both blank and live bullets were fired by the Nigerian Army at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020, for the following reasons:
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Apart from the military men in uniform, the Army left its base with vehicles, rifles and guns, which contained both live and blank bullets. General Taiwo admitted at page 22 that the Army went to the Lekki Toll Gate with live ammunition.
As of October 30, 2020, when the Panel visited the Lekki Toll Gate for its on the spot assessment, it was still able to recover two bullets shells which were duly analyzed by the forensic expert hired by the Panel, Sentinel, who is very familiar with weapons used by the Nigerian Army. These bullet shells were said to be the same as or similar to the ones normally used by the Nigerian Army and they were expended shells, meaning they were fired live at the Lekki Toll Gate.
Petitioners and witnesses appeared before the Panel to give vivid accounts of shootings by the Army into the crowd of protesters. The Panel finds their testimonies credible being eyewitness accounts and would ascribe probative value to their testimony over that of General Taiwo who was not physically present at the Lekki Toll Gate.
The Panel finds as credible, the case of the EndSARS protesters that soldiers shot directly at protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020 as confirmed by Lagos State Ballistic Expert, Willie-Harry on page 244 that some video evidence indicate “… instances where troops were seen to be re-arming their weapons before either discharging them to the air or purposely in the direction of the protesters …”
The Panel believes that the deliberate absence of officers of the Nigerian Army who were present at the Lekki Toll Gate and who were summoned by the Panel was a calculated attempt to conceal material evidence from the Panel and verily believes that their presence would have damaged the case of the Nigerian Army.
The Panel finds the evidence, presentation and report of the Ballistic Expert engaged by Lagos State as too general and unrelated to the specific evidence before the Panel on the Lekki Toll Gate Incident. The said report was based largely on extraneous materials that were not produced or tendered before the Panel in order to determine their source or relevance. The witness admitted that he did not work with any document or video admitted before the Panel, he did not speak with any of the protesters or petitioners, the doctors or the pathologists or indeed any other relevant witness known to the Panel.”
On injuries from Lekki Tollgate, the Panel: “finds that the testimony of Dr Babajide Lawson of Reddington Hospital as to the nature of treatment offered victims of the Lekki Toll Gate Incident in relation to gunshot wounds which were high velocity ‘entry and exit’, all indicate injuries from military weapons, consistent with the bullet shells recovered by the Panel during its visit and the witnesses that testified before the Panel”.
It also “finds corroboration of the case of gunshot wounds in the testimony of Dr. Aromolate Ayobami of Grandville Trauma Centre, where several victims of gunshot wounds were treated comprehensively and discharged.
“The testimony of the EndSARS protesters, especially Miss Serah Ibrahim, Mr. Onileowo Legend, Miss Dabira Ayuku, Miss Kamsichukwu (all of whom were personally present at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20), as to the fact that the Army shot live bullets, video evidence of casualties, fatalities, etc, all lend credence to the fact that the Army shot at the protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20 2020 which resulted into deaths and other physical injuries.”
See the full list of casualties published on page 297 of the report below;
