Onanuga disputes Obi over #EndSARS anniversary, insists soldiers didn’t kill protesters

Abdullateef Fowewe

Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu, Bayo Onanuga, has clashed with NDC presidential candidate Peter Obi over the sixth anniversary of the October 20, 2020, Lekki Toll Gate shootings, denying that soldiers killed #EndSARS protesters and accusing critics of pursuing an “IPOB agenda.”

Onanuga on Wednesday was responding to Obi’s X post marking six years since the incident, in which the former Anambra governor said peaceful protesters were “met with gunfire” and that lives were lost.

“Peter Obi is certainly incurable when it comes to regurgitating lies. The soldiers did not kill anyone at Lekki Toll Gate. The video of the scene showed soldiers shooting in the air, not at the protesters, who were innocently being used for an IPOB agenda to destroy Lagos,” Onanuga wrote.

Obi said the anniversary remained a painful reminder of the price Nigerian youths paid while demanding better governance and an end to police brutality.

“On that fateful night, peaceful #EndSARS protesters were met with gunfire. Lives were lost, many were injured, and the nation was left with questions about justice, accountability, and the sanctity of human life,” Obi wrote.

He added, “We must never forget. We must never normalise injustice,” and reaffirmed his call for a “New Nigeria” where citizens are protected rather than brutalised and young people are heard rather than silenced.

Onanuga’s claim contrasts with the findings of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS-Related Abuses and Other Matters, which investigated the Lekki incident.

The panel found that soldiers fired both blank and live ammunition into the crowd of unarmed protesters.

“The soldiers shot blank and live bullets directly and pointedly into the midst of the protesters at the Lekki Tollgate, with the deliberate intention to assault, maim and kill,” the panel’s report said.

The panel identified 48 casualties, including 11 deaths and four people missing and presumed dead, while other accounts of the report put the confirmed deaths at nine. It also found that 22 people sustained gunshot injuries and 11 were assaulted by military personnel.

The Lekki Toll Gate shootings occurred on the night of October 20, 2020, during nationwide #EndSARS protests against police brutality, extortion and abuses by the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad.

The incident followed the Lagos State government’s declaration of a 24-hour curfew.

The Nigerian Army has repeatedly denied that its personnel killed protesters, while the Lagos panel’s conclusions remain contested by parts of the state government.