During the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Enquiry and Restitution for Victims of SARS abuse and other related matters on Saturday, Brig. Gen. Taiwo said that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State was misinformed about the number of casualties recorded at the protest ground.
“Sanwo-Olu misinformed; nobody died at toll-gate,” he said
This was in contradiction to the statement credited to Lagos state governor that two protesters died at Lekki toll-gate.
According to the General, the supposed death did not happen at the protest ground.
“On 20th October 2020, at about 6.30 pm, while we tried to speak with the protesters and negotiate with them, they pelted stones at us and we had to fire blank bullets at protesters”.
General Taiwo alleged that most of the pictures posted on social media were not taken on the said date.
“Any picture that you (lawyers) want to present here must be submitted for forensic test.
“No protester sustained injury or died. The two people Governor Sanwo-Olu mentioned did not die at the scene; one died on Admiralty Way, which is three kilometers away from the Lekki Toll Gate, the second person was shot at Yaba,” Taiwo said.
When asked if the General was aware of the news about the protest on any foreign media, he claimed to have seen the news from BBC and CNN but not from Al-Jazeera
“Most of the videos in play have been manipulated,” Gen Taiwo said.
“Two people fainted, not died”
When asked about the presence of Omata at Lekki toll-gate on the day of the shooting, Gen. Taiwo said Omata and Bello were assigned to secure the Lekki-Epe corridor and were supposed to meet and be on their way before the Lekki incident occurred.
Taiwo explained that the exercise was led by two senior officers Lieutenant Colonel S. O. Bello who is the Commanding Officer of 65 Division, and Brigadier General Francis Omata.
When asked by Olumide-Fusika about the purpose of General Omata joining Lieutenant Colonel Bello at the toll gate, General Taiwo said it was operational.
But the #EndSARS protesters’ lawyer disagreed.
He said: “Are you aware that Gen Omata came later to stop your men from shooting?”
The officer replied: “He didn’t. He was there after the shooting had occurred. He was there to employ the non-kinetic (non-violent) measures”.
Taiwo said: “The General Officer Commanding was not in town. I called Gen Omata, he was already on ground”.
Ogunlana: “You also called Bello, why?”
Taiwo: “I was getting conflicting reports from social media and the internet. I wanted to find out what happened.
“On the internet, we were seeing videos being streamed purportedly of shootings on the ground; people screaming ‘they are killing us’ videos to that effect, so I called him.
“When the first report came in, I dismissed it. I knew nobody sent anyone to the Toll Gate….I asked him if he was anywhere near the toll gate and he said they had been stoned by hoodlums and he released some shots into the air.
“I also asked him if anybody had died as it was being reported on the internet, he replied in the negative. He had only seen two people who had fainted and they had been revived”.
As regards the shootings, the general responded to a question from Mr. Bernard Oniga, a representative of the NBA, he said that the army fired in response to the stones thrown at them.
“We shoot if pelted with stones”
“If you are being pelted with stones, the only option is gunshot. You can’t expect us to throw stones back”.
The panel ruled that following Ogunlana’s request, the facility might soon become the subject of forensic and ballistic analysis. The parties were given two weeks to conclude all analysis.
However, Mr. Olumide-Fusika claimed that there was evidence of shootings on the facilities at the toll plaza.
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