“Bridge,” they were both given live and blank bullets. In this particular case, we saw that the protest was infiltrated by some hoodlums, “Brigadier General Ahmed Taiwo said in a testimony before the Lagos Judicial Panel investigating the incident.
“There is no doubt that you had peaceful protesters. But there were also people who were exploited. That’s why they were armed with bullets in addition to the live (bullets) they were carrying.”
This is the first time the Nigerian army has admitted to a live patrol at the Lekki Toll Gate. The military statement also contradicts previous statements about the incident in which Taiwo himself was present who had earlier told the judicial panel that the soldiers were firing into the air and firing empty ammunition.
After the shooting, the military denied any involvement, calling reports of the incident “fake news” and saying soldiers were present but fired weapons into the air and used blanks, not live rounds.
The CNN investigation includes evidence that, according to current and former Nigerian military officials, the bullet casings from the location matched those used by the Nigerian military during the live round shooting.
Two bistics listics experts also confirmed with CNN that the shape of the bullet casing indicates that they use live rounds, in contradiction to previous claims by the military that fired the blanks.
Verified video footage – using timestamps and data from video files – shows soldiers shooting in the direction of opponents. Witnesses speaking to CNN said the second round of shooting was carried out by police in the evening, after the army withdrew, according to witnesses.
Police made no comment to CNN, but never denied firing on protesters in a single tweet.
It depicts how members of the Nigerian army and police opened fire on a crowd, killing at least one person and injuring dozens more.
The entry or live rounds deployed by Nigeria on Saturday is yet another in a series of ever-changing statements that happened on October 20 at the Lekki Toll Gate, where protesters gathered to protest against police brutality.
On Thursday, Information and Culture Minister La Mohammed said the army “fired blank ammunition into the air.” He also called the CNN investigation “fake news” and “misinformation.”
A U.S. State Department spokesman told CNN on Saturday that he was closely following the Nigerian government’s response to the Lekki toll gate incident and said, “We urge the investigation to be thorough, impartial and fairly transparent and to hold the perpetrators accountable.” is coming. “
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