The white paper released by the Lagos State Government on Tuesday contradicts an earlier statement by Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of the state, that two people died at the Lekki Tollgate following an attack on peaceful protesters by Nigerian soldiers.

In what has been widely described as a bid to undermine the report submitted to the governor by the Lagos Judicial Panel on Restitution for Victims of SARS-Related Abuses and Other Matters two weeks ago, the government said the panel’s claim that at least nine people died in the attack was a mere assumption and insisted only one person died.

“The findings of the JPI that nine (9) people died at LTG on October 21, 2020, from gunshots fired by the military are based on assumptions and speculations,” the white paper reads in part.

READ MORE: White Paper: Only One Protester Killed at Lekki Tollgate, Says Lagos Gov’t

“The inconsistencies and contradictions in the entire JPI report concerning the number of persons who died at LTG on October 20, 2020, and their causes of death rendered the JPI’s findings and conclusions thereon as totally unreliable and therefore unacceptable.

“The JPI’s finding of nine (9) deaths is therefore irreconcilable with the evidence of Prof. Obafunwa that only one person died of gunshot wounds at 7:43 pm at LTG on 21st October 2020.”

However, Sanwo-Olu had said, during an interview with Arise TV on October 22, 2020, that he had confirmed that two people died following the Lekki Tollgate shooting.

READ ALSO: White Paper Should Not Override Judicial Panel Report, CDD Tells Sanwo-Olu

Similarly, in an interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson, the governor said, “Two dead bodies, that is what we have seen from all the morgues, that’s what we have seen going to hospitals, that’s what we have seen as a record.

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“From the footage that we could see, because there were cameras at that facility, it seems to me that they (the assailants) would be men in military uniform. That’s what the footage shows.”

Just a day earlier, Sanwo-Olu had denied that anyone died at the tollgate despite trending videos showing casualties. Hours later, he admitted one death, then subsequently confirmed that two died.