#ENDSARS: Lekki massacre and failed govt roles -Editorial

On the night of October 20, 2020, which was described as one of the most black days for Nigerian youths, a sad incident happened which appeared to be unforgettable tragedy.

At about 6:50pm, members of the Nigerian Army allegedly opened fire on unarmed peaceful ENDSARS protesters at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos State, Nigeria. Not less than 12 protesters were killed during the shooting. A day after the sad incident, on 21th October, the state governor of Lagos, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu initially denied reports of any loss of lives, but later admitted in an interview with a CNN journalist that`only two persons were killed’.

WHAT LED TO THE END SARS PROTEST:

In 2016, a human rights activist, Segun Awosanya also known as Segalink started ENDSARS on a micro-blogging platform Twitter, following police brutality in Lagos State and across Nigeria.

The protests became more popular in 2017, using the hashtag #ENDSARS to demand the Nigeria Federal Government to disband and reform the police unit. Within a few days of renewed protests in the year 2020, it was a victory on Sunday 11th October 2020 when the Nigeria Police Force announced it would be dissolving SARS. However, it was noted that a similar promise has been made in recent years, but the government only planned to review SARS officers at medical centres rather than removing them.

On the night of 20th October, 2020, shortly before the shooting by the Nigeria Armed Force, according to Amnesty International, all CCTV cameras were allegedly removed from the toll gate. Also, the electricity supplying lights to the toll gate was disconnected including the advertisement billboards. On the same day, MTN and AIRTEL network users also experienced outages during the protests. MTN Nigeria later apologized that night after the massacre. Following a message that went viral on social media that protesters would be safe if they sang the national anthem and waved the Nigeria flag. Protesters sat down singing the national anthem at the top of their voices and waved the Nigerian flag in respite. About 20 armed military personnel approached and from the video of the event, protesters were raising their voices in song as they were shot at by the armed soldiers.

A popular Nigerian Dj, DJ Switch was at the event and streamed live on Instagram during and in the aftermath of the shooting. In the video, they attempted to remove a bullet in the leg of a man who was shot, tying a Nigeria flag around his leg. Though many videos and photographs surfaced aftermath of the shooting, the live streaming was solid evidence of the massacre.

Lagos-based risk advisory, SBM Intelligence estimated, based on witnesses and emergency services that at least forty-six peaceful protesters were killed. It was reported that the army had tried to give nine bodies to the police to help them bury. The police rejected the bodies.

In an independent analysis of the attack, investigations show that indeed the massacre took place and there was an attempted cover-up and abandonment of victims by the Lagos State Government.
The military denied responsibility for the shooting, stating that the reports were ‘fake news’. According to witnesses, the military didn’t allow ambulances to provide aid and remove corpses from the scene of the shooting.

In reaction to the sad October 2020 incident, the first citizen of the country, President Muhammadu Buhari called for calm and said he would promote policy reforms, however, he did not issue any statement or acknowledge
the massacre.

U.S. President BIDEN called on the Nigerian government to cease the “violent crackdown on protesters”. Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tweeted that Nigerian authorities should “stop killing young #EndSARS protesters”.

In solidarity with the fallen heroes, Nigerian musician Burna Boy released a song titled 20:10:2020, marking the day of the Lekki massacre.

On 26th October, the Lagos State government constituted a judicial panel of inquiry to investigate happenings during the ENDSARS protests and to establish who shot protesters, who were affected, how much compensation victims should get and should be prosecuted, however, the Nigerian government rejected the report, with Lai Mohammed, minister of Information and culture, attributing media reactions to the shooting as “the triumph of fake news and the intimidation of a silent majority by a vociferous lynch mob.”

On 30th November, 2020, the Nigerian Army finally admitted that its soldiers were armed with live ammunition and opened fire on peaceful protesters at the demonstration in Lagos.

But despite the military admission, no action has been taken against the marauding soldiers who unlawfully and gruesomely killed the peaceful #endSARS protesters in Lekki toll gate.