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The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has canvassed international inquiry into the killings and maiming of harmless #EndSARS protesters in the country.
Reacting to the Lekki Toll Gate shootings of October 20, 2020 and similar incidents across the country that led to several deaths, CAPPA said the situation was deplorable and requires urgent intervention.
Protesters have been carrying out peaceful demonstrations calling for the disbanding of the dreaded Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police for their high-handedness and extrajudicial killings across the country since October 8, 2020. The protests have spread from Lagos to Oyo, Osun, Edo, Ekiti, Abuja, Kaduna, Plateau and other states of the federation.
The Lekki incident followed the imposition of a curfew on Lagos and the state government’s alleged invitation of the military to chase the protesters from the Lekki Toll Gate grounds, which they had occupied for days.
Social media accounts and videos making the rounds indicated that the armed soldiers stormed the venue around 7p.m on Wednesday, hemmed the protesters in and started shooting sporadically, killing no less than seven persons according to initial press reports though new facts show the numbers may be far higher. Some accounts say the soldiers went away with many of the dead and prevented ambulances from conveying the injured to hospitals.
The attacks were allegedly preceded by the removal of the Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) at the Toll Gate, and the switching off of the lights in the vicinity by unknown persons.
A statement issued by Director of Programmes, Philip Jakpor, yesterday, in Lagos quoted Executive Director of CAPPA, Akinbode Oluwafemi as saying: “The disturbing images of military men mowing down peaceful and harmless #EndSARS protesters is totally uncivil and unacceptable. Perpetrators of this premeditated murder must be identified and brought to book”.
“We are still in shock and deeply saddened that the Nigerian Government decided to draft trigger happy soldiers to forcefully suppress youths waving Nigerian flags and demanding reforms that would be beneficial to all Nigerians, including the soldiers themselves.”
Oluwafemi pointed out that with ample evidence from the live feed from the scene of the mayhem, Nigerians have every reason to doubt government sincerity in addressing the situation, even as he added that since the protesters in Lekki have been converging they have been very civil and organised in their occupation of the toll gate hence the attacks were totally unwarranted.
“Instead of the carnage they unleashed on peaceful and harmless youths, we would have expected the government to look instead into allegations backed by audio visuals, of thugs working side by side their own security forces to portray the #EndSARS protests as violent and politically-motivated”.
The CAPPA boss was particularly piqued by the fact that those who rode to power on the mantra of protests permitted under a democracy now urge the use of extreme force to dissuade peaceful protesters.
He frowned on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s denial of deaths in his public broadcast in the early hours of today, cautioning that attempts to deceive Nigerians was capable of further incensing the already bitter public, especially those who have lost their loved ones in the last one week, and casting doubts about anything meaningful coming out from the Judicial Panel of Inquiry set up by the state government.
He reminded the Federal Government and the Lagos State Government that the right to protest, which accompanies freedom of expression was guaranteed under section 39(1) of the 1999 Constitution, hence the government was counteracting the laws it was supposed to guard.