A US report assessing human rights practices in countries for the year 2020 says accurate data on the fatality toll resulting from the Lekki Toll Gate shooting remain unavailable.
The report stated that no other organisation was able to verify the claim of human right advocacy organisation, Amnesty International that 10 persons died during the event, although the government disputed it.
“On October 20, members of the security forces enforced curfew by firing shots into the air to disperse protesters, who had gathered at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos to protest abusive practices by the Nigerian Police Force’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS),” said the report titled ‘2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nigeria’
“Accurate information on fatalities resulting from the shooting was not available at year’s end. The government acknowledged that soldiers armed with live ammunition were present at the Lekki Toll Gate. At year’s end the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry and Restitution continued to hear testimony and investigate the shooting at Lekki Toll Gate.”
Fatality count from the ghastly incident remains a key source of controversy five months after. Many have talked about it being a ‘massacre’ of several innocent citizens protesting brutality.
The facts still hang in the balance.
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