The judicial panel set up by the Lagos government to probe the October 20 Lekki Tollgate massacre has recommended renaming the facility to #EndSARS Tollgate, and October 20 declared a toll-free day to commemorate young Nigerians killed at the plaza on October 20, last year.
This was contained in a report submitted by the judicial panel to Lagos State government on Monday seen by Peoples Gazette.
The panel recommended that the tollgate should be made a memorial site for the #EndSARS protest by renaming it ‘#EndSARS Tollgate’ and “that October 20 of every year,” be made a “toll-free day” at the Lekki Tollgate “as long as the tollgate exists.”
The state government set up the panel in the wake of the #EndSARS protest against extrajudicial killings and police brutality in October 2020.
Having sat for a year and taken testimonies of experts, petitioners, lawyers, and witnesses, the panel found credible the testimonies of petitioners and witnesses who appeared before the panel to give accounts of how soldiers fired shots at protesters.
The army initially denied its presence at the protest ground on October 20, but soon the Commander, 81 Military Intelligence Brigade, Nigerian Army, Victoria Island, Lagos, General A.I.Taiwo admitted that the soldiers went to the toll gate with live ammunition.
Soldiers arrived at the protest ground in their vehicles, with rifles and guns containing live and blank bullets, and fired shots at protesters who sat, singing and waving the Nigerian flag. They were also denied victims immediate care, the report affirmed.
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