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The Nigerian government Thursday absolved the military of any wrongdoing in their handling of the EndSARS protest at Lekki, Lagos state.
While also condemning the CNN report ‘detailing the killings’ during the protest, the government said what the media organisation reported was a “bloodless and bodiless massacre.”
“CNN goofed in its preconceived stance that the soldiers who were deployed to Lekki Toll Gate indeed shot at protesters, killing some of them. CNN relied heavily on unverified and possibly-doctored videos, as well as information sourced from questionable sources, to reach its conclusion. This should earn CNN a serious sanction for irresponsible reporting,” Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed stated this during a world press conference in Abuja.
He described the government as being responsible and responsive in the handling of the EndSARS protest while it lasted.
Among others, the protesters who sought an end to police brutality and disbanding the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) via their five-point demand, called for the setting up of state’s panel of inquiries and better salary for police personnel.
He said “the Federal Government was not only responsive but was also very responsible in its handling of the demands of the EndSARS protesters. The five demands were met (some with an immediate pronouncement and others by kick starting the process of meeting them).
“Despite this, the protest continued and the demands kept expanding, until the protest was hijacked, leading to unprecedented violence characterised by killings, maiming, arson, looting etc.”
CNN report
On the recent CNN report which accused the military of firing live bullets, the minister said the report was not only jaundiced, but “reinforces the disinformation that is going round, and it is blatantly irresponsible and a poor piece of journalistic work by a reputable international news organisation.
“CNN engaged in incredible sensationalism and did a great disservice to itself and to journalism. In the first instance, CNN, which touted its report as an exclusive investigative report, sadly relied on the same videos that have been circulating on social media, without verification. This is very serious and CNN should be sanctioned for that.
“CNN merely said the videos were ”obtained by CNN”, without saying wherefrom and whether or not it authenticated them. Were CNN reporters and cameramen at the Lekki Toll Gate that evening? If the answer is no, on what basis were they reporting? Relying on second or third hand information and presenting it as ”CNN Investigation”?
“Why didn’t the CNN balance its story by showing the compelling testimony of Brigadier-General Taiwo before the Judicial Panel in Lagos? Is this one-sided reporting what is expected from an international media organization or any serious news organization? If CNN had done its investigation properly, it would have known how fake news and disinformation were trending during the EndSARS crisis. The BBC even did a report on this, and we recommend that report to CNN.”
Corroborating Taiwo’s submission with the BBC report, Mohammed said: “Talking about the BBC, a reporter with the BBC’s Pidgin Service, Damilola Banjo, was at Lekki Toll Gate protest ground that night. She was quoted as saying soldiers were indeed at the Toll Gate but they shot “sporadically into the air’’ and not at the protesters. CNN that was not at the scene reported otherwise.
“In airing its so-called investigative report, CNN conveniently forgot that on Oct. 23rd, 2020, it tweeted, from its verified twitter handle, that the military killed 38 people when it opened fire on peaceful protesters on Tuesday, Oct. 20th, 2020. Less than a month later, the same CNN, in what it called an EXCLUSIVE report based on a rehash of old, unverified videos, was only able to confirm that one person died in the same incident.”
He accused the CNN of being “blind to the fact that six soldiers and 37 policemen were killed in unprovoked attacks. Obviously, CNN did not consider the security agents human enough.CNN, in its ‘investigation’, was blind to the wanton destruction of property in Lagos and across the country. Also, CNN was blind to the burning of police stations and vehicles all over the country. Instead, it went to town with unverified social media footages, in its desperation to prove that people were killed at the Lekki Toll Gate.
“Again, this is irresponsible journalism for which CNN deserves to be sanctioned. We insist that the military did not shoot at protesters at Lekki Toll Gate. They fired blank ammunition in the air. Again, anyone who knows anyone who was killed at Lekki Toll Gate should head to the Judicial Panel with conclusive evidence of such.”
Role of security agencies
While commending the military and the entire security agencies for their professionalism during the protest, the minister slammed the human rights community for being insensitive to the fate suffered by security agents during the fiasco.
“At this point, it is important to say that the Federal Government is very satisfied with the role played by the security agencies, especially the military and the police, all through the EndSARS crisis. The security agents were professional and measured in
their response. Even when their lives were at stake, they exercised uncommon restraint. Their professionalism and measured response saved many lives and properties.
“For example, despite arresting hordes of looters during the violence in Lagos, the army treated them humanely and even counselled them before handing them over to the police. The same cannot be said of those who unleashed mayhem on the security agents, killing and maiming them, sometimes in such a barbaric manner that is unprecedented in these parts.
“As I said earlier, six soldiers and 37 policemen were killed all over the country during the crisis. This is in addition to 196 policemen who were injured; 164 police vehicles that were destroyed and 134 police stations that were razed.
“ Also, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Nigeria Customs Service and Nigeria Immigration Service all lost infrastructures, equipment and other valuables to attack by hoodlums during the crisis. Eight medium security custodial centres in six states (Edo, Lagos, Abia, Delta, Ondo and Ebonyi) were attacked, with1, 957 inmates set free and 31 staff injured.
“The Federal Government will therefore not accept a situation in which some so-called human rights bodies and jaundiced media organisations will continue to harass the security agencies over their roles during the crisis. Soldiers, policemen and other security agents deserve commendation, not condemnation, except, of course, their critics are saying they are not human beings and that their own rights do not matter.
“It is depressing and demoralising to continue to vilify men and women in uniform, who themselves were victims of senseless violence unleashed by hoodlums. The role of the human rights organisations, in particular, became suspect after they simply ignored the brutal killing and maiming of security agents during the crisis, as well as the orgy of violence that left 57 civilians dead, 269 private/corporate facilities burnt /looted /vandalised, 243 government facilities burnt/vandalised and 81 government warehouses looted, and instead continued to dwell on the bodiless and bloodless ‘massacre’ at Lekki Toll Gate. They did not see anything wrong in the public and private properties that were burnt or looted; neither did they see anything wrong in the fact that some of the businesses that were looted belonged to struggling young men and women. All they could see in their biased view of the whole situation was a hoax massacre,” he added.
Social media
Lamenting the role of social media during the protest, he said “what started as a peaceful protest against police brutality quickly degenerated into incredible violence despite an immediate response to the demands by the government.
“Keen watchers of the developments cannot fail to notice the role played by the social media in the EndSARS protest. As a veritable tool for mass mobilisation, the organisers of the protest, of course, leveraged heavily on social media for that purpose. But on the other hand, the same social media was used to spread fake news and disinformation that catalysed the violence that was witnessed across the country.”
“The social media was used to guide arsonists and looters to certain properties, both public and private. Pictures of persons, including some celebrities, who were supposedly killed at the Lekki Toll Gate by soldiers, were circulated widely, only for those persons to refute such claims or for the discerning to disprove such posts.
“As we have said many times, no responsible government will stand by and allow such abuse of social media to continue. The fake news/disinformation purveyors have latched on to our concerns to allege that the Federal Government is planning to shut down social media. No, we have no plans to shut down the social media. What we have always advocated, and what we will do, is to regulate the social media. Nigeria is not alone in this regard,” Mohammed further said.
Without sounding pre-emptive of the Lagos judicial panel, he said what transpired at Lekki “based on testimonies available in the public space, is that the world may have just witnessed, for the very first time ever, a MASSACRE WITHOUT BODIES! Some have tagged it ‘social media massacre’. The testimony of Brigadier-General Ahmed Ibrahim Taiwo of the Nigerian Army before the Panel was compelling, and I am sure many of you have listened to or watched it.”
Quoting Taiwo’s testimonies, the minister said: “Soldiers were deployed all over Lagos, including Lekki Toll Gate, after the other security agencies were overwhelmed on Oct. 20th, 2020, upon the request of the state government.
“Before deployment, the soldiers were briefed on the Rules of Engagement, which they adhered to all through; soldiers at Lekki Toll Gate fired blank ammunitions into the air; blank ammunition cannot do any damage to the flesh, not to talk of killing anyone’; and that firing live ammunition into the crowd, as some have alleged, would have led to mass killing, which never happened.”
While challenging anyone with contrary position to take same to the judicial panel, he said, “the purveyors of fake news and disinformation succeeded in deceiving the world that indeed there was mass killing in Lekki, even when, till date, not a single body has been produced and not a single family or relative has come out to say their child or ward was killed at Lekki.
“More surprising and irresponsible is the fact that some people have been calling for sanctions against Nigeria or against Nigerian government officials on the basis of a hoax. This is one of the dangers of fake news and disinformation. Once fake news is out, many run with it, without looking back, even when the truth is eventually revealed. We therefore want to use this opportunity to ask those who have alleged massacre at the Lekki Toll Gate to go to the Judicial Panel to present their evidence(s) to the world or simply admit that they have goofed.”
DJ Switch
On DJ Switch, whose real name the minister gave as Obianuju Catherine Udeh, the lady alleged to be behind the news of Lekki ‘killings’, the minister challenged her to come up with evidence.
“Surprisingly, instead of presenting whatever evidence she may have to the Judicial Panel, she chose to escape from the country under the pretext that her life was in danger. I ask: in danger from whom? The military has come out to say they never sought after her. To the best of our knowledge, the police never declared her wanted. Her conduct thus becomes suspect. Who is she fronting for? What is her real motive? Who are her sponsors? If she has any evidence of killings, why is she not presenting it to the Panel? If she was so desperate for asylum in any country, does she have to resort to blatant falsehood to tarnish the image of the country just to achieve her aim? In the fullness of time, this lady will be exposed for what she is, a fraud and a front for divisive and destructive forces.
“At this juncture, we want to appeal to countries that have made hasty judgements on the basis of fake news and disinformation emanating from the EndSARS crisis to endeavour to seek and find the truth.”
PDP
But speaking at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Thursday, the party’s national, Prince Uche Secondus, said the federal government should address issues raised by the protesters rather than intimidating them.
“The consequences of all these came to the fore when the youths, last month poured out their anger on the country through a nationwide protest. Even though the protest was triggered off by accumulated police brutality, particularly by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, it developed into a wider rebellion against injustice and poor leadership in the country.
“The federal government should address the fundamental issues raised by the youths rather than the counterproductive strategy of seeking to hound and intimidate perceived leaders of the peaceful protest by seizing their travel documents, freezing their accounts and arrests,” Secondus said.
CSO reacts
Also in a reaction, Executive Director Global Right Organisation Abiodun Baiyewu said the federal government was bias by absolving the military of any atrocity.
She said the position “will only drive the distrust that a lot of citizens already had for the panels.”
Baiyewu also said a major hallmark “of courageous leadership is the ability to listen with developing a defensive stance, ability to admit wrong, or willingness to probe its own blindsides.
“Since the government has decided that they are above board and not culpable, then they should just halt the panels. No sense wasting time and resources on a predetermined conclusion,” she said.
