After watching a two and half hour video footage of the Lekki Toll Gate shooting, the army has admitted taking live bullets to the scene of the #EndSARS protest.
Chairman of the judicial panel, Justice Doris Okuwobi had invited the Lekki Concession Company (LCC) to present to the panel, the footage of the incident at the toll gate on October 20, 2020.
The minute-by-minute event as chronicled in the footage by one of the attendees at the hearing shows that the protesters were caged in at the scene of the protest.
They were also unarmed and did not pose any threat to the security operatives.
It was for some of the attendees at the hearing, a hair-raising moment watch the footage of the shooting.
Brigadier General Ahmed Taiwo, Commander of the 81 Military Intelligence Brigade, however, stated that the live bullets taken by the soldiers were not meant to be used on the protesters.
According to him, they were headed to a military operation along the Eti-Osa axis of Lekki.
He maintained contrary to the video, that only blank bullets were shot at the youths adding that 85% of the bullets taken to the protest scene were blanks.
The Army Commander stated that his initial position was based on information he had adding that they did not have the facts of what happened at the protest venue.
According to him, police stations had been sacked and policemen overrun so the army had to step in.
He said that while on their way to their operation at Eti-Osa, some officers dismounted from their vehicles but were pelted with stones.
The incident led to a certain Major Saheed sustaining a head injury. He also maintained that no one died in the Lekki shooting even if some people fainted but were resuscitated.
However, he confirmed a short video clip in which someone said “we are helpless'” while another was seen lying on the floor in pool of blood.
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