Former Director Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Sani Usman on Thursday claimed that Military personnel who shot protesters at Lekki toll gate used ‘blank ammunition’.
Usman in an interview with Arise News said the blank ammunition used to disperse protesters has little or no effect on its target.
According to Usman, the blanks cannot kill. The worst it can do, he said, is cause slight blister or colouring on the skin.
Recall that the Army had earlier denied that its officers were present at the scene of the shooting.
But on Wednesday, the 81 Division of the Nigerian Army (NA) revealed that the Lagos State Government invited the military to intervene during the #EndSARS protests.
Speaking on Thursday Usman said, “If you look at the canisters, they were blank ammo and blank ammo don’t even kill. At a close range, maybe 100metres – maybe it will have some pigmentation on your skin.
The immediate past army spokesperson added:
“Remember the military are armed and by the nature of their training, they are trained to kill and I think the military in its wisdom instead of using live ammunition decided to use blank armour which is meant for training.
Usman argued that the army should be commended for the way they handled the Lekki toll gate incident rather than being condemned.
“I think they should be commended for that otherwise there would have been serious collateral damage, but they were professional enough to have done that.”
