FACT CHECK: Were #EndSARS protesters not killed at Lekki tollgate as MC Oluomo claimed?

The Chairman of Lagos Parks and Garages Management, Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo, has insisted that nobody was killed during the EndSARS protest at Lekki tollgate. He stated this while addressing supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC), during their ‘five-million-man march’ in support of the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, […]

The Chairman of Lagos Parks and Garages Management, Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo, has insisted that nobody was killed during the EndSARS protest at Lekki tollgate.

He stated this while addressing supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC), during their ‘five-million-man march’ in support of the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in Lagos on Sunday.

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Full Text:

Addressing the mammoth crowd MC Oluomo noted that the allegations were rather a political game orchestrated by Tinubu’s rival presidential candidates, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi.

He said: “Where are the bodies and where are they buried? Do they have relatives in Nigeria? Has Nigeria bribed the mothers of the deceased protesters? Why are their siblings not searching for them, even on social media? Or is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu a Chief of Army Staff or President who will order the killing of protesters at the Lekki tollgate?

“They’re lying to us, they want to undermine the Yorubas, everyone should come out. It is a political game. It was Atiku and Obi that conspired to do all those things then.”

Background

The Lekki shooting occurred on October 20, 2020 around 7p.m. when soldiers reportedly opened fire on unarmed protesters who were holding a peaceful protest at Lekki tollgate.

The #EndSARS protest, a campaign against police brutality and seeking the reform of the police, held in different parts of the country for more than two weeks.

Verification

Checks by Daily Trust have shown that the statement by MC Oluomo is false.

Reports stated that protesters died from live bullets fired by security operatives believed to be soldiers at the scene of the protest.

In an interview with CNN a few days after the incident, Sanwo-Olu confirmed that two protesters died.

He said, “Two dead bodies, that is what we have seen from all the morgues, that’s what we have seen going to hospitals, that’s what we have seen as a record….”

In another development, the Judicial Panel of Inquiry (JPI) set up by the Lagos State Government to probe the October 20, 2020 #EndSARs protest also revealed that at least 11 persons were killed during the peaceful demonstration at the Lekki Tollgate and another four missing and presumed dead.

The report, also described the Lekki Tollgate shootings as “a massacre.”

The report described as “atrocious” the maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters, while sitting on the floor, waving their Nigerian flags and singing the National Anthem, stressing that the act could be equated to a “massacre in context.”

Verdict

The claim by MC Oluomo that lives were not lost at Lekki Tollgate during the #EndSARS protest is false.

 

This Fact Check is produced in partnership with the Centre for Democracy and Development