“We were not at the Lekki Toll Gate at all at all,” the army declared.
“Well we were there, but we swear that we did not shoot at anybody,” they said, changing their initial story.
“Actually, we fired some shots, but we were shooting in the air,” – another version
“Even if we fired at anybody, we could not have killed anybody because we did not carry live bullets to the Toll Gate,’ they claimed yet again in righteous indignation.
“Ok, we carried both live and blank bullets,” they later confessed, “but we swear, it was for our protection. We didn’t kill anybody”
And then the governor of Lagos state Babajide Sanwaolu weighed in:
“I don’t know what the army was doing at the Lekki Toll Gate. Who invited them? I am the governor and I did not invite them.
And the army, peeved and angry that Sanwaolu had betrayed them, like Judas Iscariot declared:
“The governor of Lagos state invited us to the Lekki Toll Gate”
Cornered, like a rat with its back to the wall, the embattled Lagos state governor responded;
“Well, it is actually true. I invited the army, but I did not tell them to kill Nigerians oo”
At least he tried to make amends by setting up the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and Other Matters.
The committee, headed by a very brilliant, dignified, and courageous retired judge, Justice Doris Okuwobi and other fine Nigerians. That committee has submitted its report and shocked everyone by it bold and objective recommendations aimed at preventing future reoccurrences and ensuring that the victims are adequately compensated.
Shockingly, instead of helping to bring relief to Nigerians by receiving the report with open hands and a desire to do the proper thing by way of its faithful implementation, the Nigerian government as well as the Lagos state government been rattled by the indictments of both the Lagos state, federal government, and Lekki Concession Company.
Some of the victims are now being attacked by ungun known men, sorry, unknown gunmen. Sorry again, by unknown matchet men since the attack on Kamson Ibe was via machetes. Dabira, another activist has also been been threatened. So has Barristers Olu Adegboruwa, Faroti, and Kunle Wizeman.
Lai Muhammed, the information minister has also started his Goebellian and Marchiavellan propaganda war to change the narrative of a truth that has already been established. His sophisms this time around, will not change what is now known to the world.
Sadly, a man who once touted his credentials as a human rights activist has also weighed in on the matter and has taken sides with a government that seems more concerned about burying the truth.
To imagine that Festus Keyamo, who once worked in the chambers of the great Gani Fawehinmi would describe the report of the Lagos endsars panel as illegal can only be a surprise to those who never really knew him. How Gani would be turning in his grave to see a former lawyer activist from his stable play this kind of ignoble role. But then, Keyamo is now a politician and minister, and in Nigeria, there is a belief that for the average politician, anything goes.
Why governments, either at state or federal levels are not comfortable with the report can only stem from the fact that governments and government functionaries in one way or the other are benefitting from the impunity going on in the country.
