On Monday, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said the findings of the Lagos Judicial Panel of Inquiry into the aftermath of the military shooting of demonstrators in Lekki in October 2020 during the EndSars protest, should be dismissed as a fake.
Mr Mohammed argued there was no massacre, despite the fact that the panel found that soldiers deployed by the Nigerian Army shot and killed at least 11 unarmed citizens at the Lekki Toll Gate.
“There’s absolutely nothing in the report that is circulating to make us change our minds that there was a massacre in Lekki on October 20, 2020,” Mr Mohammed said at a press briefing in Abuja on Monday.”
The panel also asked that the Buhari-led administration issue a public apology for the Nigerian soldiers’ killing at the Lekki Tollgate, as well as the establishment of October 20 as a national remembrance day to honor the young Nigerians who died.
Despite many reports to the contrary, Mr Mohammed has repeatedly stated that no EndSars demonstrators died at the tollgate in the past year. Mr Mohammed also slammed international media for reporting on the Nigerian Army’s killings.
Mr Mohammed stated in a press conference in October, on the first anniversary of the atrocity, that there was no confirmation that any EndSars protester had been killed at the site. He described the occurrence as a “terrorist attack” in his remarks.
The minister’s press announcement comes a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Nigerian government’s response to the panel report’s recommendations would guide the Biden administration’s future steps.
