How Nigerian Army secretly moved 20 Lekki Massacre victims to IDH mortuary

Reports from the Sahara reporters said at least 20 bodies of #EndSARS protesters massacred at Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos by operatives of the Nigerian Army on October 20, 2020, were on Friday secretly moved to the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) mortuary in Yaba.

SaharaReporters gathered that the Lekki massacre victims were moved to the IDH mortuary after a postmortem examinations was conducted on their bodies at the Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.

The IDH mortuary is beside the 68 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital (68 NARHY), a military health facility in Yaba.

Newsflash247 had earlier reported that soldiers had last week Tuesday, October 20, opened fire on the protesters, who had converged at the Lekki Toll Gate to protest against police brutality.

The incident triggered a global outrage, with calls for justice echoing from different parts of the world.

It was gathered that before the shooting started, some officials uninstalled the Closed Circuit Television cameras in the area.

The electricity at the protest area was also disconnected to prevent demonstrators from filming the attack.

Minutes later, heavily armed Nigerian Army personnel moved into the scene to complete the plan.

By the time sounds of their guns died down, dozens of protesters had been killed.

Though Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, blamed ‘forces beyond our control’ for the attack, the Army in a statement later revealed that the soldiers were invited to the scene of protest by the governor.

Also soldiers involved in the operation confirmed they were drafted in for the mission on the request of the governor.

The soldiers, who were deployed from 65 Battalion, Bonny Camp, Victoria Island, Lagos, told some victims’ relatives after dumping some of the injured and dead at MRS Hospital that they were sent by Sanwo-Olu.

While the governor insisted that there were only two recorded deaths and no bloodstain at the scene of the protest, military sources told SaharaReporters that no fewer than 30 protesters died as a result of the shooting.

Meanwhile, a human rights advocacy group, Amnesty International, has released a timeline of the Lekki shootings, which it said followed an on-the-ground investigation into the incident.

In the timeline published on Wednesday, the rights groups said it uncovered how soldiers from Bonny Camp opened fire on protesters.

The new timeline of the incident chronicled from how the protest was peaceful, through the firing of gunshots, and up to the statement from Governor Sanwo-Olu that the army was responsible for the shooting.

Amnesty International said its investigation had confirmed that the Nigerian Army and police killed peaceful protesters in Lagos.

Meanwhile, members of the Lagos State judicial panel of inquiry on SARS abuses and Lekki toll gate shootings were on Friday denied access to the military hospital in Ikoyi.

The panel was on an inspection tour of some locations identified to be relevant to their task but was denied access to the military hospital upon arrival.

The panel is investigating cases of police brutality and the Lekki toll gate shooting of October 20, 2020, and was understood to have visited the hospital to inspect the mortuary.

Earlier on Friday, the panel had discovered some bullet shells during their inspection visit to the Lekki toll gate plaza itself.

The panel, unannounced, on Friday went to the hospital on investigation into the shooting at Lekki tollgate where 15 protesters were reportedly killed.

Some witnesses of the Lekki shooting accused the military of taking away the bodies of those killed in the incident.

The panel met resistance as it got to the gate of the hospital.

Ebun Adegboruwa, a member of the panel, told the soldiers, who stopped them at the gate that the panel came to the hospital because it had intelligence that might help with its investigation.

“The facility is relevant to our investigation. We have a pathologist. We are here on the authority of the president, not only the governor,” he said.

“We are following dues process, and it is important we visit the mortuary as it will help our findings.

“If we are not allowed access, we will go back and take other actions. We won’t force ourselves in. We have confidential information that the military hospital here is relevant in the investigation of the Lekki event. We heard this hospital is controlled by 65 battalion, and under the 81 division. We are also taking steps to reach military authorities.”

Adegboruwa said though the panel does not have evidence that there are bodies of those killed at the tollgate in the hospital, it was at the facility to verify the claim that they were.

He also said the panel will continue its work until it gets to the truth of the matter.

Journalists were asked to leave the hospital premises, and one of the soldiers threatened that “things will get dirty” if they refused.

Despite the presence of Doris Okuwobi, a retired justice and chairperson of the panel who arrived minutes later, the military did not allow the panel access to its facility.

Olaniyi Osoba, spokesperson of army’s 81 division in Lagos, was not immediately available for comment over the matter.

Earlier, the panel visited the tollgate where Yomi Omomuwansa, managing director of Lekki Concession Company (LCC), took the panel on a tour of the facility.

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