A South Africa-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), Nigerian Lives Matter (NLM), has called on the senate to conduct public hearing into the Lekki Tollgate shootings.
The NGO, in a petition signed by its founder, Debo Adesina, asked the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, to conduct proper investigation to bring perpetrators to book.
NLM sent the petition through its lawyers, Sphinix Solicitors, and copied the Attorney General of the Federation, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos, and the Chief of Army Staff.
Development Diaries reports that #EndSARS protesters were shot by soldiers in the Lekki area of Lagos State, southwest Nigeria, on 20 October.
At least seven people were reportedly killed and many others injured.
The security operatives stormed Lekki hours after Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu imposed a curfew in the state.
Before the curfew was imposed, armed thugs had attacked protesters and police operatives in Lagos.
Thugs were also reported to have taken advantage of the protest in Benin, Edo State, and Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, with police accusing people ‘posing’ as protesters of looting weapons, and torching police buildings.
‘This action by the men in military uniform is condemnable, against international best practices and capable of causing chaos nationwide if not properly investigated and nipped in the bud with adequate disciplinary action’, the petition read.
‘It is on this basis that we call for an investigation as to what really transpired that night at Lekki Tollgate’.
The NLM said anyone indicted after the investigation should be summarily dismissed and made to face criminal trial.
It also called for adequate compensation of the families of victims.
Protests, with hashtag #EndSARS, were triggered by the alleged killing of a young man by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Lagos on 03 October.
The police unit, which has been disbanded by the Nigerian government, had long been accused of harassment, unlawful arrests, torture and killings.
Source: NAN
Photo source: The Cable
