The Lagos State Panel on Restitution for Victims of SARS-Related Abuses and Other Matters has admitted that there was a massacre at Lekki Tollgate on October 20, 2020.
In a 309-page report submitted to Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Governor of Lagos State, on Monday, the panel said soldiers shot live ammunition at armless protesters with the intention to kill and maim them.
“The soldiers actually shot blank and live bullets directly and pointedly into the midst of the protesters at the Lekki Tollgate, with the deliberate intention to assault, maim and kill,” the statement partly reads.
“The soldiers turned back ambulances that were invited to render first aid and assistance to the wounded protesters.”
According to the report, the action of the soldiers agrees with the Merriam Webster’s definition of ‘massacre’ as “the act or an instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty”.
The panel then listed 48 people who either died or sustained injuries as a result of the shooting.
The report corroborates an investigation published by FIJ in January, which revealed that at least 20 people died in the aftermath of the October 2020 shooting of youths protesting police brutality.
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