“Officers of the Nigerian Army shot, injured and killed unarmed helpless and defenceless protesters, without provocation or justification, while they were waving the Nigerian Flag and singing the National Anthem and the manner of assault and killing could in context be described as a massacre,”

The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for victims of SARS-related abuses and other matters has concluded that the Nigerian Army shot and killed unarmed protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020.

The panel also found that officers of the  Nigeria police force who were deployed to the toll gate on the night of the incident “shot at, assaulted and battered unarmed protesters, which led to injuries and deaths,” thus aiding the army in the commission of a massacre on unarmed civilians.

The findings of the panel, which was released Monday evening, put to rest repeated denials by the army, the Nigerian government and the Lagos State government that a massacre was committed by the soldiers of the 65 Battalion of the 81 Garrison Division, Bonny Camp, led by Sanusi Ovada Bello, a lieutenant colonel.

“It manipulated the incomplete CCTV Video footage of the Lekki Toll Gate on the night of the 20th of October 2020, which it tendered before the Panel.”

The Panel noted “that there was an invitation of the Nigerian Army to Lagos State made by the Lagos State Government through the Governor before the hierarchy of the Nigerian Army deployed its soldiers to the Lekki Toll Gate on the night of the 20th of October.

“The Panel found that there was an attempt to cover up the Incident of the 20th of October by the cleaning of the Lekki Toll Gate and the failure to preserve the scene ahead of potential investigations.”

The Federal Government had denied that unarmed protesters were killed at the toll gate on October 20.

The Minister of Information, Mr. Lai Mohammed, described the incident as a “massacre without bodies.”