MUST READ AND WE MUST ALL ACT RIGHT AWAY

[Toyin Falola]

Read below: we must call for an international investigation team, demand the resignation of the Buhari government, and send some army officers and police to The International Court of Justice for prosecution.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/423823-investigation-bullets-blood-death-untold-story-of-what-happened-at-lekki-toll-gate.html

 

 

[Femi Segun]

Despite these horrific pictures and eyewitnesses accounts, there are people who will still deny that people were killed during the attacks. Many consciences have been seared with iron. Our humanity has been discounted to the extent that nothing that doesn't affect us directly matters again. Instead of rage, we have settled for semantics. In Lagos with a population of over 15 million people, where many citizens have given up on the government, regime apologists are here telling us nobody died because nobody has come out to say somebody died Cry. my beloved country. 

On Sat, Oct 31, 2020 at 7:47 AM Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

Read below: we must call for an international investigation team, demand the resignation of the Buhari government, and send some army officers and police to The International Court of Justice for prosecution.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/423823-investigation-bullets-blood-death-untold-story-of-what-happened-at-lekki-toll-gate.html

 

 

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[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Professor Toyin Falola, a Nigerian scholar living in the US, is pursuing a deeply humanistic but idealistic path in relation to the Lekki Massacre.

Falola is calling for the resignation of the Buhari government and sending to the International Court of Justice at the Hague the army and police officers responsible for the Lekki Massacre.

I wonder why he did not call for the resignation of the governor of Lagos state, neck deep as that government official also is in the Lekki Massacre.

How should a person like myself respond to Falola, a seasoned historian of Nigerian and African history, better informed than myself of the culture of brutality that has too often shaped African governments, and yet who is demanding, in effect, that a mountain should be lifted and flung into the sea, in calling for  the resignation of the government of Muhammadu Buhari and the prosecution at the Hague of the armed forces  figures responsible for this carnage?

Falola is of course aware that he is calling, not only for the dissolution of a government but for the dismantling of a complex political architecture in which    the entire country, particularly its political elite, are deeply implicated.

Falola's call will galvanize the cries of those in Buhari's Muslim North that EndSARS is directed agst their ethno-religious representative, Muhammadu Buhari.

It will mobilize responses like those of the Northern Governors Forum that the movement is directed against the President who emerges from their ethno-religious constituency.

Many of the generality  in the Muslim North are likely to stand behind this belief, going from what I have been reading from this demographic on Facebook.

What will be the response of the Fulani nationalists, the Fulani supremacists, of Fulani herdsmen, their terrorist militia and of Miyetti Allah, coordinator and spokespeople of the Fulani herdsmen militia, openly justifying massacres of Nigerians, even as their patrons and leaders,  composed of Nigeria's most elite Fulani, and whose bloodthirsty record is empowered by their ethnic kinsman Buhari who makes sure they are not even questioned by the police talk less prosecuted as they openly work as coordinators and spokespeople for   one of the world's deadliest terror groups?

What will be the response of the Sarduana of Sokoto, head of Nigeria's Muslim community, of ex-central bank governor and ex-Emir of Kano Sanusi Lamido Snusi, both patrons of Miyetti Allah, whose responses to the outrages by this  terrorist network  has been either silence, unhelpful comments avoiding the facts or disputed claims of anti-Fulani massacre in response to outright massacres by Fulani herdsmen?

A good number of the people massacred by these herdsmen militia and their lands seized  are from the Middle Belt, yet the head of the Northern Governors Forum, and which led a delegation of support to Buhari, branding the protests as an attack on his  govt, is Simon Lalong, governor of Plateau, whose state has been fighting a long war with Fulani herdsmen milita terrorism.

What will be the response of the Northern Muslim political and military establishment which Buhari has empowered in a manner unprecedented in Nigerian by placing them in  charge of most of the organs of state?

It has taken Buhari decades of struggle  to get to this point and the right wing of the Muslim North represented by Buhari years of struggle to reach here, a journey going through the paradoxical advocacy of Boko Haram building on Atiku Abubakar's threat of violent  change to Nigeria bcs a Muslim Northerner, represented by himself, was not made PDP 2011 Presidential candidate and hence, practically certain President of Nigeria, to the Chibok crisis enabled by Borno state governor Kassim Shettima to the rebranding of Buhari by Southern Nigerian ideologues and his selling to the South enabling his 2015 victory.

Will those who see this victory as enabling themselves allow it to be taken from them in the face of killings that , in terms of numbers, are a fraction of what has been done by Fulani herdsmen militia in the Middle Belt and in Southern Kaduna?

What will be the response of El Rufai, governor of Kaduna State, described as another ethnicist Buhari at a smaller level?

Calling for the resignation of the Buhari govt without doing same for the Lagos state govt is likely to inspire charges of a form of conspiracy, particular since Falola is from the SW, the same region as Lagos.

Falola knows of course that a sustained call of that kind implies an attack on the Tinubu political dynasty, the most sustained SW political conglomerate after that of the legendary Ọbafẹmi Awolowo, a dynasty to which Sanwo-Olu the Lagos state governor belongs as a protégé of the centre of that dynasty, Bola Tinubu.

He is also aware that the successful prosecution of such a call implies the end of the APC, the party of the national government and the dominant party in the SW.

Yet, he is able to leap above these geo-political calculations and insist on the humanistic thing to do.

I salute you, brother.

As long as you include the Lagos state govt in this call, you are worthy to be counted among the idealistic youth of the EndSARS protests.

Meanwhile, please you should consider not coming to Nigeria this year or the next so these people you are moving against don't unleash their frustration on you.

thanks

oluwatoyin vincent adepoju

 

 

On Sat, 31 Oct 2020 at 12:47, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

Read below: we must call for an international investigation team, demand the resignation of the Buhari government, and send some army officers and police to The International Court of Justice for prosecution.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/423823-investigation-bullets-blood-death-untold-story-of-what-happened-at-lekki-toll-gate.html

 

 

--

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Edited

Professor Toyin Falola, a Nigerian scholar living in the US, is pursuing a deeply humanistic but idealistic path in relation to the Lekki Massacre.

Falola is calling for the resignation of the Buhari government and sending to the International Court of Justice at the Hague the army and police officers responsible for the Lekki Massacre.

I wonder why he did not call for the resignation of the governor of Lagos state, neck deep as that government official also is in the Lekki Massacre.

How should a person like myself respond to Falola, a seasoned historian of Nigerian and African history, better informed than myself of the culture of brutality that has too often shaped African governments, and yet who is demanding, in effect, that a mountain should be lifted and flung into the sea, in calling for  the resignation of the government of Muhammadu Buhari and the prosecution at the Hague of the armed forces  figures responsible for this carnage?

Falola is of course aware that he is calling, not only for the dissolution of a government but for the dismantling of a complex political architecture in which    the entire country, particularly its political elite, are deeply implicated.

Falola's call will galvanize the cries of those in Buhari's Muslim North that EndSARS is directed agst their ethno-religious representative, Muhammadu Buhari.

It will mobilize responses like those of the Northern Governors Forum that the movement is being used as a means of  change of national govt  rather than its ostensible goal of  police and political reform, a claim also made by the most prominent SW political figure Bola Tinubu.

Many of the generality  in the Muslim North are likely to stand behind this belief, going from what I have been reading from this demographic on Facebook.

What will be the response of the Fulani nationalists, the Fulani supremacists, of Fulani herdsmen, their terrorist militia and of Miyetti Allah, coordinator and spokespeople of the Fulani herdsmen militia, openly justifying massacres of Nigerians, even as their patrons and leaders,  composed of Nigeria's most elite Fulani, and whose bloodthirsty record is empowered by their ethnic kinsman Buhari who makes sure they are not even questioned by the police talk less prosecuted as they openly work as coordinators and spokespeople for   one of the world's deadliest terror groups?

What will be the response of the Sarduana of Sokoto, head of Nigeria's Muslim community, of ex-central bank governor and ex-Emir of Kano Sanusi Lamido Snusi, both patrons of Miyetti Allah, whose responses to the outrages by this  terrorist network  has been either silence, unhelpful comments avoiding the facts or disputed claims of anti-Fulani massacre in response to outright massacres by Fulani herdsmen?

A good number of the people massacred by these herdsmen militia and their lands seized  are from the Middle Belt, yet the head of the Northern Governors Forum, and which led a delegation of support to Buhari, branding the protests as an attack on his  govt, is Simon Lalong, governor of Plateau, whose state has been fighting a long war with Fulani herdsmen milita terrorism.

What will be the response of the Northern Muslim political and military establishment which Buhari has empowered in a manner unprecedented in Nigerian by placing them in  charge of most of the organs of state?

It has taken Buhari decades of struggle  to get to this point and the right wing of the Muslim North represented by Buhari years of struggle to reach here, a journey going through the paradoxical advocacy of Boko Haram building on Atiku Abubakar's threat of violent  change to Nigeria bcs a Muslim Northerner, represented by himself, was not made PDP 2011 Presidential candidate and hence, practically certain President of Nigeria, to the Chibok crisis enabled by Borno state governor Kassim Shettima to the rebranding of Buhari by Southern Nigerian ideologues and his selling to the South enabling his 2015 victory.

Will those who see this victory as enabling themselves allow it to be taken from them in the face of killings that , in terms of numbers, are a fraction of what has been done by Fulani herdsmen militia in the Middle Belt and in Southern Kaduna?

What will be the response of El Rufai, governor of Kaduna State, described as another ethnicist Buhari at a smaller level?

Calling for the resignation of the Buhari govt without doing same for the Lagos state govt is likely to inspire charges of a form of conspiracy, particular since Falola is from the SW, the same region as Lagos.

Falola is likely to be focusing on the Buhari govt bcs he sees that govt as the apex and the all embracing point of the chain of responsibility for the massacre.

But is the Lagos state govt not the ground zero of these activities, with the army declaring they were called in by the Lagos state governor to enforce the curfew he had declared, even as the army denies that they did the killings, even in the face of even the incontrovertible  evidence?

A sustained call of the kind Falola is making may been as an attack on the Tinubu political dynasty, the most sustained SW political conglomerate after that of the legendary Ọbafẹmi Awolowo, a dynasty to which Sanwo-Olu the Lagos state governor belongs as a protégé of the centre of that dynasty, Bola Tinubu.

The successful prosecution of such a call implies the end of the APC, the party of the national government and the dominant party in the SW.

Yet, Falola  is able to leap above these geo-political calculations and insist on the humanistic thing to do.

I salute you, brother.

As long as you include the Lagos state govt in this call, you are worthy to be counted among the idealistic youth of the EndSARS protests.

Meanwhile, please you should consider not coming to Nigeria this year or the next so these people you are moving against don't unleash their frustration on you.

thanks

oluwatoyin vincent adepoju

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Fantastic work from Premium Times

On Sat, 31 Oct 2020 at 12:47, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

Read below: we must call for an international investigation team, demand the resignation of the Buhari government, and send some army officers and police to The International Court of Justice for prosecution.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/423823-investigation-bullets-blood-death-untold-story-of-what-happened-at-lekki-toll-gate.html

 

 

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[Salimonu Kadiri]

​Femi Segun, let us hope that we are not being fed with fake, manipulated and Nollywood pictures. While every sane person should support the call for an international investigation team to unravel what happened at Lekki Tollgate on 20 October 2020, I think one should impose reason over impulse so as not to pre-empt the results of subsequent international investigations. From the Premium Times purported investigations I am yet to detect a compelling evidence of what actually happened at Lekki tollgate, at the night in question. The Premium Times investigators stated, "At about 6 : 45 p. m., on October 20, (2020) men in military uniform arrived at the Lekki Toll Gate, in Lagos, in three Toyota Hilux Vans and almost immediately began shooting into a crowd of peaceful protesters gathered there waving the Nigerian green-and-white flag and reciting National Anthem." My question to the expression, "men in military uniform" is, is it possible for people to dress in military uniform in Nigeria without belonging to the Nigerian Army? Premium Times investigators, as it appears had no evidence that the shooters were from the Nigerian Army which was why the crowd attackers were identified as "men in military uniform."

She (D.J. Switch), Premium Times investigators reported, "said the military (men) initially prevented first responders and ambulances from reaching the injured but later allowed them through." She said, "she saw at least 15 corpses and claimed that the security agents took the bodies away." The Premium Times never took initiative to contact any of the first responders and ambulances who were said to have been there to corroborate D.J. Switch's statement. Contrary to previous Premium Times publication, that D. J. Switch handed over victims shot dead to soldiers that took them away, she now claims to have seen at least 15 corpses that the security agents (not soldiers) took away.

Referring to the Amnesty International Report of 21 October 2020, the Premium Times Investigator stated : At least 12 people were killed at Alausa and Lekki Toll Gate Lagos (2 at Alausa and 10 at Lekki Toll Gate); Hundreds severely injured and the CCTVs were dismantled to cover the murder. Again, one is being fed with guessed number of deaths, in particular, at the Tollgate. Citing from the report of Amnesty International, the Premium Times wrote, "Evidence gathered from eyewitnesses, video footages and hospital reports confirm that between 6:45 p.m. and 9 : 00p.m., on Tuesday, 20 October (2020), the Nigerian military opened fire on thousands of people who were peacefully calling for good governance and an end to police brutality." Following the AI's report, the Nigerian military was engaged in shooting at thousands of people for two hours and fifteen minutes. If this were true and correct, real dead casualties then should have been in hundreds and not as being guessed to be at least 10 or 15!!! Besides that, I wonder what kind of peaceful demonstrators would flout dusk to dawn curfew declared by the government of Lagos State. The Governor of Lagos, Sanwo-Olu, has since confirmed that the CCTVs were intact and that they would be submitted to the investigating panel on Lekki incident.

A human body was found floating in the lagoon not far from Lekki and one of the Premium Times investigators, "Mr. Adeoyo said nearby residents suspected that the floating body could be one of the protesters fired upon by soldiers and alleged by witnesses to have been carried. A google map coordinate he sent indicated that the body was floating close to Bay Lounge, an upscale restaurant." No one was humane enough to pick the floating dead man from the lagoon not to talk of confirming if he had bullet holes in any part of his decaying body. Yet, it was being speculated that he might have been a demonstrator shot by soldiers. What of if the floating body belonged to a visitor to the upscale restaurant, Bay Lounge, who was drunk on alcohol and fell into the lagoon to drown, or if he was a victim of some criminals resident at the nearby shanty? It is horrific to see a floating dead human body on the lagoon, but the greatest horror as I see it is to attribute his death to soldiers without evidence.

S. Kadiri    

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Femi Segun <solor...@gmail.com>
Sent: 31 October 2020 15:33
To: 'Chika Onyeani' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - MUST READ AND WE MUST ALL ACT RIGHT AWAY

 

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[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Very funny, Salimonu.

I will allow others to help you come to terms with reality.

Toyin

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[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Salimonu's mastery of the scope of the English language and his quality  of logic continue to amaze me.

The term ''men in military uniforms'' and ''security agents'' have no correlation, even though the governor of Lagos state has admitted the army was at the scene and the army itself has at last confirmed that not only were they there, they were  sent by the Lagos state governor.

A person giving a report should stick with one description, not mixing '' ''men in military uniforms'' and ''security agents''' since who is to say if other  ''men in military uniforms'' were not at the scene at the same time as the soldiers?

Premium Times has interviewed people described as eyewitnesses and given pictures and videos of those self described eyewitnesses, along with the bullets they say they recovered from the scene.

Not good enough.

They should also have interviewed the ambulances that supposedly came into help. 

The evidence of those who say they witnessed the shooting and who describe themselves as helping those being attacked escape is of no value, since those who may not not have witnessed the shooting but were described as coming in to assist after it was done were not interviewed, their testimony being particularly vital as medical professionals.

And if and when when those medical teams are interviewed, we should take time to ask how they were sure any  injured or dead protesters they claim they saw did not die or sustain injuries from a stampede after the men in uniform   shot into the air.

If they respond by stating that they identified gunshot wounds on the bodies of the dead and wounded, it wont be out of place to ask if the protesters  had injured or killed each other in trying to shoot back at the soldiers and being inexperienced in the use of firearms, could not use the guns well.

After all, did we not observe the other day that Farooq Kperoqi's  rhetoric suggested that he was urging the protesters to either arm themselves or indicated his knowledge that they had arms, hence stating they would crush anything in their part?

Even though it may be stated that Farooq was referring to crushing in terms of the irresistible power of  civil disobedience, through a seemingly peaceful and carnivalesque demonstration leading us to earlier describe their jamboree as more entertainment   than anything else as they played music, ate and danced, who knows if some of them read Farooq's column and inspired by it,  armed themselves to achieve a crushing by force?

The army kept on denying that it was at the scene only to be compelled to admit it was. Good of them so as not to give miscreants a chance to misread their presence there.

Some might say that their dishonesty casts doubt on whatever they may say going forward, like the governor's dishonesty in stating forces beyond his control  initiated the massacre, yet the soldiers  eventually admitted they were at the scene at his command,  even though at the same time as as 'unknown ''men in military uniform'' are shown in videos shooting at the protesters.

Does anyone genuinely think that an army still struggling to subdue Boko Haram even after four years of the Buhari Presidency who came into power on the platform of crushing the terrorist group, an army that makes a point of hardly engaging Fulani herdsmen's militia terrorism, will occupy themselves with attacking unarmed protesters, even after the army head's declaration of readiness to use the army in supporting the govt agst the protesters, a declaration better seen as an effort  to frighten  the protesters than anything else?

A true patriot should realize that govt always means well, so we should  await the govt's CCTV evidence which will contain   nothing but the truth.

After all, would they step so low as to either doctor or manufacture evidence in an issue of  this magnitude?

Federal minister Fashola's discovery of a camera at the protest scene days after the place had been swept clean  has spawned  a  genre of film comedy, links to which I will post here later.

But those comics are noisemakers  maligning no less a person that a SAN, a holder of Nigeria's highest legal title  and ex-governor of Lagos State,  depicting his camera discovery as suspiciously providential and foolishly crafty   in a situation  in which the attempt to construct a false reality by twisting facts is the central govt strategy.

Conspiracy theorists.

You claim to be a peaceful protester yet you are flouting a curfew.

Its true that civil disobedience is described as a form of peaceful protest, but is it not really a form of violence, of violence agst the state?

How can you peacefully  break a law or oppose the state?

In opposing the state, you are already engaged in violence because you are disrupting  the fabric of order by which the nation  runs.

Therefore, the idea of peaceful protest  agst the state is an oxymoron.

In addition, even though it was stated that the curfew was moved from 4pm to 9pm and the shooting by the men in military uniforms- impersonators of the army for all we know, if any such men were there at all- started shooting hours before that, what were the protesters still doing at the protest  ground after the curfew was announced?

Should they not have been dispersing or have dispersed so as to be home before the curfew commenced?

We may agree, therefore, that they did not plan to obey the curfew, thereby placing themselves at risk.

The reporters state the dead body in the lagoon alerted them to the possibility that it was that of one of the protesters, leading them to interview those people living in the area, leading to those people telling their stories of what is being described as a massacre.

Even then, the more important issue is the dead body, not the eyewitness reports of the villagers whose ideological orientations are unknown and whose testimony is therefore doubtful.

Why not focus on finding out  why and how that person was in the water and leave alone such wild speculation as to the belief it was or likely to be a victim of  shooting by men in uniform, since if any shooting was done  remains in doubt in spite of videos supposedly conforming this shooting and various  eyewitnesses claiming to validate that story?

Anti-govt conspirators everywhere.

thanks

toyin

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[Femi Segun]

OVA,

As long as the matter concerns General Buhari and his APC regime of irascible propagandists, Alagba Salimonu Kadiri will ask for evidence even if you share the news that your wife gave birth to a baby boy that resembles you warts and all. There is no use trying to convince anyone who is indoctrinated on any issue. It is a psychosocial cum spiritio emotional inebriation  of a kind. O di ojo miran

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[OLAYINKA AGBETUYI]

Does the Lagos State governor have any authority to deploy the army to any situation?

Does the authority not flow from the GOC to unit commanders?

Who gives the GOCs their marching orders?

Are we still in the military era?

OAA

Mr. President you took an oath to rule according to the Constitution.

Where are the schools to promote the teaching of the country's lingua francas?

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>

Date: 03/11/2020 16:27 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafricadialogue <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - MUST READ AND WE MUST ALL ACT RIGHT AWAY

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[Salimonu Kadiri]

​Femi Segun & OVA, my main concern here is not about Buhari and APC but truth and nothing but the truth. Professor Falola in posting the *MUST READ* admonished readers to *ACT RIGHT AWAY.* I have read the Premium Times' link and other links referenced in the so-called investigative report published by Nicholas Ibekwe, on 31 October 2020.

Even if Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju should assume that we, other readers, are blind and as such he can deceive us that there is no oil in the journalistic soup, he must certainly get it into his skull that he cannot deceive us that there is no salt in Nicholas Ibekwe's journalistic soup, since we still retain our tastes. As if Oluwatoyin were to wish his seer come true, he averred, ".... the Governor of Lagos State has admitted the army was at the scene and the army itself has at last confirmed that not only were they there, they were sent by the Lagos State governor." No governor can order the army to act in any part of its state, according to the Constitution of Nigeria which has placed that power in the hands of the President. The Governor of Lagos has no power to order the Army into action in Lekki or any part of Lagos State. The President has the power to deploy troops in any part of Nigeria irrespective of whether a state's governor asked for it or not. That is why in Ibekwe's entire report there was nowhere Sanwo-Olu admitted sending soldiers to Lekki Tool Gate. Rather, Mr. Ibekwe referred to Premium Times of 21 October 2020, in which it was reported that, 'The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has blamed the shooting of peaceful protesters at the Lekki toll gate, Tuesday evening by security agents believed to be soldiers' "on forces beyond his control." A careful and normal reader will not fail to observe that the term, security agents believed to be soldiers, did not originate from Governor Sanwo-Olu but the reporter himself, which he indicated by putting inverted commas begin and close on , on forces beyond his (my) control. The forces beyond his control cannot necessarily be limited to soldiers but hoodlums and urchins. Sanwo-Olu made the statement after visiting hospitals according to Premium Times and added that "10 victims are currently being treated at the state-owned General Hospital. 11 at Reddington Hospital, and four at Vedic Lifecare Hospital. He also said two victims of the shooting were receiving intensive medical care while three victims had been released." On the same 21 October 2020, Premium Times, carried another article titled, Nigerian Army Denies Shooting at Protesters, written by one Alfred Olufemi. On the contrary, Jayne Augoye headlined her article in the Premium Times thus, "#End SARS : Outrage as Nigerian Soldiers kill protesters in Lagos." The illustrated picture depicting the scene of the shooting contained a man dressed in mufti with his hands stretched perpendicular to the ground without visible gun or riffle in his hands. Otherwise, there were no pictures of soldiers at the scene. Then on 23 October 2020, Jayne Augoye wrote in the Premium Times as referenced in Nicholas Ibekwe's investigation thus, "The Artiste, DJ Switch said armed soldiers and police officers shot at her and other peaceful #End SARS protesters at the Lekki toll gate on Tuesday night. She said at least 15 people were killed in the shootings and that she and other survivors took the victims' bodies to the soldiers who took them away. Something I think about in hindsight that I wished we hadn't done was that we carried dead bodies and dropped them at the feet of the soldiers, when I asked their unit commander why they are killing us." Armed soldiers and police officers, DJ Switch claimed, shot at her but in a miraculous way she was able to deflect the bullets. However, she and her comrades picked unfortunate co-protesters felled by bullets and dropped them at the feet of the soldiers. She did not publish any photographs of the soldiers or any dead bodies she and her colleagues dropped at the feet of the soldiers. Brave DJ Switch even questioned the unnamed unit commander of the soldiers, why are you killing us? Are we to believe that the soldiers just took away the dead bodies from DJ Switch and allowed her and her colleagues to remain at Lekki Toll Gate? As I have pointed out before, the claim of DJ Switch that at least 15 people were killed is a guess which was why she could not say the exact number of dead bodies she and her colleagues dropped at the feet of the soldiers. 

One Deji Ashiru and the reporter, Nicholas Ibekwe, hired a boat to locate a body said to be floating in the lagoon, 2 kilometres from Lekki Toll Gate and they found it. The floating man's body was said to have swollen and invaded by flies. The reporter and his colleague could not say how the floating dead man got to the lagoon or how he died. However, the impression was created by Premium Times investigators that the floating dead body was one of the dead bodies collected by soldiers at Lekki Toll Gate and which they dropped in the lagoon. An impartial investigator would have engaged divers to dive into the lagoon and combed the area to find out if there were more dead bodies with bullet wounds down there yet to float. Amnesty International has told us, according to Premium Times investigators, that the Nigerian military opened fire on thousands of peaceful demonstrators between 6:45 p.m. and 9:00 pm on Tuesday, 20 October 2020. The Premium Times investigating team in its report of 31 October 2020 confirmed that men in military uniform arrived at the Lekki Toll Gate at 6:45 p.m., in three Toyota Hilux vans and almost immediately began shooting into a crowd of peaceful protesters. This means that shooting lasted 2 hours 15 minutes (6:45 pm - 9:00pm). I leave it to your imagination to guess how many people would have been killed in 2 hours and 15 minutes the men in military uniform were shooting at thousands unarmed protesters, and if the three Toyota Hilux vans would have been enough to ferry away all dead bodies. I support wholeheartedly the call for international investigation team to enquire into what actually happened on 20 October 2020, at Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos. Until that is done and the result is published, it will be unwise to rely on rumours and hearsays to condemn people as murderers. We want to know who actually did what in that tragic event.

S. Kadiri     

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Femi Segun <solor...@gmail.com>

Sent: 03 November 2020 18:48

To: 'Chika Onyeani' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - MUST READ AND WE MUST ALL ACT RIGHT AWAY

A human body was found floating in the lagoon not far from Lekki and one of the Premium Times investigators, "Mr. Adeoyo said nearby residents suspected that the floating body could be one of the protesters fired upon by soldiers and alleged by witnesses to have been carried. A google map coordinate he sent indicated that the body was floating close to Bay Lounge, an upscale restaurant." No one was humane enough to pick the floating dead man from the lagoon not to talk of confirming if he had bullet holes in any part of his decaying body. Yet, it was being speculated that he might have been a demonstrator shot by soldiers. What of if the floating body belonged to a visitor to the upscale restaurant, Bay Lounge, who was drunk on alcohol and fell into the lagoon to drown, or if he was a victim of some criminals, resident at the nearby shanty? It is horrific to see a floating dead human body on the lagoon, but the greatest horror as I see it is to attribute his death to soldiers without evidence.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAN_y-4rvx9YmsOZFCXBBQ9%3DQS2AghZvyGEw3DO3BLrmAvW4jVg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Preliminary-

the army said they were invited by the governor of Lagos state.

The videos showing the army arriving at the scene and commencing shooting, videos showing the shooting throughout the night and into the next day and with commentary by protesters whose faces we can see, along with bodies of those shot and lying on the ground are circulating freely on Instagram and Twitter.

Even if we claim to be defending the govt we should  take advantage of available information.

We should not be like the govt that still thinks this is pre-Internet, pre-digital Nigeria.

thanks

Toyin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/HE1P193MB00769289CA5D9D7C67FD2214AEEF0%40HE1P193MB0076.EURP193.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM.