#EndSARS Lekki Tollgate massacre: Shocking findings ~ Army may have killed up to 96 persons —Pathologist [Pt. 3]
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The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and Other Matters (Lagos EndSARS Panel) has released some shocking discoveries from the Lekki Tollgate shootings of October 20, 2020 as a massacre.
The panel indicted Nigerian soldiers and other security agents in the killing, forced disappearances and injuring of tens of harmless and unarmed youths protesting police brutality at the Lekki Tollgate on October 20, 2020.
The report showed that operatives of the Nigerian Army may have killed up to 96 persons during the #EndSARS Lekki Tollgate massacre according to Professor John Obafunwa, a Forensic Pathologist of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital.
Below is part three of a 309-page report submitted to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State on Monday by the Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel tagged “LASG JPI Report Of The Lekki Incident Investigation Of 20th October 2020:
6. When did the Army arrive at the toll gate?
Evidence indicated that the Nigerian Army arrived the Lekki Toll Gate at about 6:40pm on 20th October, 2020. Upon the review of the incident, Sentinel Forensics Limited in their report, corroborated this as the report identified seven (7) military vehicles to be present at the scene specifically at 18:51:14hrs.
7. Did the army use blank or live bullets or both at the Lekki Toll Gate and did it result in casualties including deaths?
A. Testimonies from witnesses on whether or not the Army used Blank or Live Bullets or both at the Lekki Toll Gate, are divergent. The testimony from the Nigerian Army indicated that they tried to persuade the protesters to leave the Toll Gate and go home in compliance with the curfew already imposed.
The Nigerian Army also stated that they later fired shots of blank bullets into the air in order to disperse the protesters. According to their testimony, there were no fatalities occasioned by their shooting at the Lekki Toll Gate, and that only two persons fainted and were revived and that at no time were live ammunitions fired into the crowd.
To buttress their testimony, the Nigerian Army tendered in evidence the expended blank ammunition they fired into the air. They maintained that blank ammunitions do not have the capacity to cause bodily injury, let alone cause fatality.
B. The evidence of Brigadier General Taiwo on what transpired on the 20th October 2020, when the Army were deployed to the Lekki Toll Gate was hearsay even as he made it clear he was not on ground at the Lekki Toll Gate on the said day.
His failure to present the commanding officer Lt. Colonel Bello, who was on ground and Brigadier General Omata, who later joined him at the Lekki Toll Gate, is fatal to his account of what actually happened on the night of the 20th October 2020.
C. Brigadier General Taiwo admitted that the troops deployed were carrying blanks and Live Ammunition.
D. A contrary testimony by Witnesses of the #EndSARS protesters indicated that live bullets were fired by Nigerian Army and the empty shell casings of live bullets allegedly recovered from the scene were tendered in evidence by the Witnesses of the protesters.
Also, empty shell casings of fired shots were recovered by members of the Panel during visit to locus in quo. Testimonies from Reddington hospital confirmed that bullet injuries were treated at their facility.
E. The video evidence of the LCC and those of Serah Ibrahim showed the soldiers were shooting in the air and at some times directly at the protesters. Both account of the Forensic Experts and the Ballistic expert support the evidence of Serah Ibrahim and other witnesses.
F. By virtue of the document tendered by the MD of Lekki Concession Company marked LCC Exhibit A, there is corroboration by LCC which was on ground that the Nigeria Army shot at protesters and disrupted their activities on the 20th of October 2020.
The document titled “LCC condemns shooting of unarmed protesters and disruption of the peaceful march at the Lekki Toll Plaza” was an LCC PRESS RELEASE of 21st OCTOBER, 2020.
The document which emanated from LCC, the company that was in charge of Lekki Toll Gate and is a witness and party to what happened at the LTG gave conclusive proof through its caption that the protest at Lekki Toll Gate was peaceful but was disrupted by Nigerian Army who came to shoot at unarmed peaceful protesters.
G. A number of petitioners who testified before the panel established that they were hit from ammunitions of the army and their injuries have been found by the hospitals to be consistent with gunshot injuries.
The evidence of Reddington Hospital and Grandville Hospital established the fact that not less than 20 persons who claimed to be protesters were treated for wounds consistent with gunshot injuries. It is therefore improbable that the army only used blank ammunitions at the Toll Gate on the day of the incident as claimed. There were many injured and deaths.
H. The medical evidence from Dr Lawson and Dr Aromolate of Reddington Hospital and Granville Trauma center respectively, reported at least one death at both facilities.
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I. Panel believes the testimony of Dr. Babajide Lawson that the situation at the Lekki Branch of Reddington Hospital on the night of October 20, 2020 could be termed as a case of ‘mass casualty’.
J. Evidence from the Forensics experts (Sentinel Forensics Ltd) engaged by the Panel confirmed that multiple muzzle flashes consistent with the discharge of ammunition were observed.
The Forensics experts also noted that at the commencement of engagement, for the most part, the muzzle flashes appeared to be directed upwards towards the sky, and at other times the direction of the protesters.
The experts further noted that there were instances where at least two persons sustained injury/rendered immobile and were carried by other protesters. From the totality of the evidence adduced, it can be safely concluded that there were the use and discharge of live ammunitions at the Lekki Toll Gate on 20th October, 2020 which resulted in injuries and deaths.
K. One of the protesters who was shot and taken for dead, Olalekan Sanusi, (video W80 – of Serah Ibrahim) eventually escaped to narrate his ordeal and experience stated that at least 11 corpses were in the van, where he had been put in and presumed dead.
Dabira Ayuku also testified that she saw seven (7) bodies being put in a military truck at the Lekki Toll Gate, both sets of evidence were uncontroverted.
L. Also, the Lagos State Chief Pathologist, Prof John Oladapo Obafunwa, in his testimony stated that ‘‘deaths of three cases came about at the Lekki but their identities of the dead were unknown.” He was specific in identifying where the corpses were said to have been recovered, where they were said to be preserved, and when autopsies were conducted.
He further concluded that the cause of death of one of them was bleeding due to a blunt force trauma. Though, he did not comment on the blunt force trauma of two of the three corpses, he however affirmed that the third case was caused by gunshots injuries, specifically a rifle weapon.
M. The evidence of the pathologist Prof Obafunwa that only 3 of the bodies that they conducted post mortem examination on were from Lekki and only one had gunshot injury and this was not debunked. We deem it credible as the contrary was not presented before the panel.
N. The testimony and report of Professor John Obafunwa, a Forensic Pathologist of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, showed that three (3) corpses were deposited at the Mainland Hospital, Yaba Hospital, all from the Lekki Toll Gate and the autopsy conducted thereon revealed death from bleeding caused by penetrating objects or rifled weapon.
O. However, the Panel finds that the fact of lack of identity of some of the other 96 corpses on the list supplied by Professor Obafunwa would not obliterate the fact that some of them could have come from the Lekki Toll Gate Incident of October 20, 2020 or that some other unidentified corpses may have been removed by their families or the military, as claimed by the EndSARS protesters, far and beyond the list tendered by Professor Obafunwa.
P. The Panel also finds that most of the 96 corpses for which autopsies were conducted by Professor Obafunwa remain unidentified but they were labelled with EndSARS, apparently lending credence to the case of the EndSARS protesters that the shootings by security agencies resulted in mass deaths within the State.
Q. The evidence of Brigadier General Taiwo on the Rules of Engagement being the use of minimum force and use of lethal force only as a means of last resort, where other means to control the situation has failed was not established by any iota of evidence to explain or justify the use of Live Ammunition at the Lekki Toll Gate against peaceful protesters.
R. The Rules of Engagement as stated by Brigadier General Taiwo, that after firing has ceased, medical assistance must be rendered, details of incident both in writing and on audio-visual equipment on whether or not there were casualties must be recorded was not provided by the military.
The army in the circumstances of their engagement did not comply with their own Rules of Engagement in the conduct of their operation at the Lekki Toll Gate on the night of 20th Oct 2020.
S. The panel finds that had the rule of engagement of the military under Non-Kinetic protocol been fully adopted and adhered to, a single shot need not have been fired to persuade the unarmed and defenseless youth to leave the Lekki Toll Gate in preparation for the commencement of the declared curfew by the State Government in evening (9pm) of the 20th of October, 2020.
T. From all available evidence, it is without doubt that the military did not just use blank ammunition at Lekki Toll Gate. The eye witnesses account shows very clearly that live ammunition was used by the military, who were initially the only persons who carried arms to the protest ground on the day of the incident.
The medical evidence on the nature of the injury sustained by the protesters and cases of death were results of the deployment of live ammunition as confirmed by the forensic experts, Sentinel Forensic limited and Oxygen consulting UK limited.
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