The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS-Related Abuse and Other Matters, which also investigated the Lekki toll gate shootings, signed a scorching 309-page report that has caught the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Police, and the Lekki Concession Company off guard after a year of heart-wrenching hearings. On the night of October 20, 2020, while protesters sat peacefully at the Lekki toll gate, waving the Nigerian flag and singing the Nigerian national anthem, state actors brutally and fatally broke up a protest that brought together the voices of many Nigerians at home and abroad against police brutality. At least nine people were killed, according to the findings of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry. Following one of Nigeria’s bloodiest nights, the various state actors implicated in the killings scrambled to deflect blame for a cyclopean national tragedy. The Nigerian government and the Nigerian Army typically spat fire and brimstone when eyewitnesses and the media, including foreign media, recounted what they saw. The Nigerian government went after the Channel News Network (CNN) at one point, accusing it of spreading fake news.
When TheEconomist published an opinion piece on the Nigeria Army’s operations on October 25, 2021, the Army tore into the newspaper, putting up a strong defense of its method of operation in the process.
What does it have to say now, though? Nigerians laud and applaud the sacrifices made by young Nigerian soldiers on the frontlines to keep the country safe from savage criminals. What does the Nigerian Army have to say about the actions of some of its men at the Lekki toll gate on the night of October 20, 2020, in the face of this historic indictment? Every day, Nigerian soldiers, many of whom are barely in their twenties, make the ultimate sacrifice to keep the country safe in the trenches of a heartbreaking war against terrorism and banditry. Every day, young Nigerian soldiers are killed by Boko Haram or ISWAP terrorists in order to protect the country’s sovereignty. Nigerians mourn as a nation whenever this happens. The Lekki toll gate massacre, on the other hand, did something different: it shattered the heart of a long-suffering country.
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Nigeria has been plagued by insecurity for several years. With savage terrorists fanning the flames of terrorism in the north, other criminals emboldened by Boko Haram’s and ISWAP’s surprising successes have scurried out of hiding to turn Nigeria into a hotbed of insecurity. Thousands of people have been slaughtered, and entire towns have been looted. Countless structures have been demolished, and thousands of people have lost their jobs. Countless people are still held captive for no apparent reason. The Nigerian Army has shown heroic courage in the face of a never-ending barrage of terrorist fire. It is no exaggeration to say that the country would have been overrun by terrorists if not for the soldiers’ valor.
Nigerians have always reacted angrily whenever the Nigerian Army appears to be shortchanged, no matter how insignificantly, in gratitude for their many sacrifices. It’s difficult not to feel the national outrage that erupts whenever allegations of money being diverted from arms purchases or the alleged poor welfare of soldiers on the front lines are made.
The Nigerian Army, on the other hand, now has questions to answer. Have Nigerian soldiers turned into assassins of unarmed Nigerians? The actions of some of its men at the Lekki toll gate on October 20, 2020, have left a sour taste in my mouth. What was the justification for using such disproportionately lethal force against the protesters? Is there no other option? Was it necessary for soldiers to slaughter young men and women whose only crime was protesting against institutionalized brutality in a country that had already been turned into a river of innocent blood due to the monumental folly of a few? Each of the bullets fired by Nigerian soldiers on October 20, 2021, to kill unarmed protesters triggered a flood of painful memories. Nigerians recall the Nigerian Army’s ignominious role in halting the country’s democratic transition in 1966 and, as a result, exacerbating the country’s numerous problems. Nigerians recall how military dictators squandered much of the country’s wealth. Military men played a significant role in the Nigerian civil war, which Nigerians remember. Nigerians remember Dele Giwa, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and all the other victims of military dictatorships.
On the night of October 20,2021, the Nigerian Army betrayed disturbing bloodlust in a country with extremely weak institutions and many all-powerful ogas who are ogres of heavy-handedness and corruption.
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There have been allegations of extrajudicial killings of innocent Nigerians by Nigerian soldiers all over the country. A country that has been scarred by thousands of unnecessary deaths is not about to forget. The Nigerian Police’s ignominious role in the massacre comes as little surprise. Is it possible for a leopard to change its spots? The protest, which crammed the Lekki toll gate with protesters on that fateful night, was against police brutality, and the Nigerian Police, true to their dreadful reputation, used bloodthirsty brutes to crush it.
It is unlikely that the Nigeria Police Force will ever have the level of supreme professionalism that is required for effective law enforcement. The Nigerian Police Force is unlikely to abandon its signature operational tools of torture and extortion any time soon. Many Nigerian institutions are global champions of widespread corruption. The reason is self-evident. The Lagos State Government established the Judicial Panel of Inquiry, which discovered that the soldiers who murdered unarmed protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate were there on the Lagos State Government’s invitation. It can only be described as scandalous that on one of Nigeria’s most historic nights, preservation politics took precedence over the sanctity of human lives. The report has exposed the snakes who work for the Lekki Concession Company as businessmen without morals, experts in the darkest arts of business, and practitioners of ‘commerce without morality,’ as the immortal Mahatma Gandhi put it.
On that night, what happened to the lights? Why did the Lekki Concession Company turn off the lights to allow the killers of Nigerian dreams to move in and plunge an entire country into stygian darkness as young Nigerians cried out against police brutality on that eternal night? The Lekki Concession Company intentionally tampered with the cameras and attempted to conceal evidence, according to the Judicial Panel of Inquiry. The Lekki Concession Company will go down in history as an accomplice in the brutal murder of innocent Nigerians by state actors for prioritizing perverse profiteering over the suffering of innocent Nigerians. Although the Judicial Panel of Inquiry made some broad recommendations, it is obvious that the sanctions will be limited. Mr. Lai Mohammed, the Culture and Information Minister at the time of the massacre and since has shown this through his body language and apocalyptic utterances.
Read also: Lekki shootings: No Petition Against the Nigerian Army – Legal Team
Whatever happens, a night that many wanted to wrap in eternal darkness and silence has been given light and sound. The blood of all those killed by police brutality prior to October 20, 2020, as well as those massacred on that bloodiest of nights, will continue to stain Nigeria’s image, particularly the consciences of those complicit in the indiscriminate slaughter. They will never be able to live in peace. They will never have a happy ending in history.
Obiezu can be reached at keneobiezu@gmail.com.
