At least nine persons were confirmed dead at the Lekki toll plaza on the night soldiers stormed there to disperse #EndSARS protesters on October 20, 2020.
This figure was contained in the report submitted by theLagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and other matters
The Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel submitted its report to the Lagos State Government on Monday.
According to the report, titled, ‘Report of Lekki Incident Investigation Of 20th October 2020’, at least 48 protesters were either shot dead, injured with bullet wounds or assaulted by soldiers.
The report stated that nine protesters were confirmed dead, while four were presumed dead.
48 names were listed by the panel as casualties of the incident.
Among the 48, about 20 sustained gunshot injuries, while 13 others were assaulted by the military.
According to the report, those who were killed were: Victor Sunday Ibanga, Abuta Solomon, Jide, Olalekan Abideen Ashafa, Olamilekan Ajasa, Kolade Salami, Folorunsho Olabisi, Kenechukwu Ugoh and Nathaniel Solomon.
The report also listed Abiodun Adesanya, Ifeanyi Nicholas Eji, Tola and Wisdom as “presumed dead.”
The panel also noted that 96 other corpses were presented by a forensic pathologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Prof John Obafunwa.
According to the 309-page report, the protesters were allegedly killed by policemen and soldiers.
The report read in part, “The atrocious maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters, while sitting on the floor and waving their Nigerian flags, while singing the National Anthem can be equated to a massacre in context.
“It was alleged and corroborated that the soldiers had their vans parked at the Lekki tollgate and removed as many bodies and corpses of the fallen protesters, which they took away with their vans.”
The report negates the consistent claim by the Federal Government that there was no massacre at the tollgate, a focal gathering point during last year’s nationwide demonstration against extrajudicial killings and police brutality by operatives of the now-defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had staunchly maintained that the Lekki incident was a “massacre without bodies” and had threatened to sue the Cable News Network and another international media house that claimed otherwise.