BLOODY RAGE: Soldiers’ shooting of unarmed youths escalates #EndSARS protests

The #EndSARS protests, which began two weeks ago sparked a bloody rage in Lagos and parts of the country on Tuesday evening, as soldiers allegedly led by an Army colonel stormed the Lekki toll gate and fired live shots at unarmed protesters.

The military action aggravated the messy situation with angry protesters and miscreants burning down several federal and Lagos governments’ buildings, banks as well as family homes of the state Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu; premises of Television Continental (TVC) and The Nation newspaper owned by the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Besides, the unarmed protesters killed or injured by the soldiers who stormed the Lekki toll gate where the youths had been gathering daily to demand an end to police brutality and the scrapping of Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the police, about 49 others, including six policemen were killed in clashes between security agents and hoodlums on Wednesday.

The Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu was rescued by soldiers as hoodlums invaded his palace, vandalising and looting items including the traditional ruler’s staff of office.

The public property burnt in Lagos include more than 30 buses belonging to the Lagos State Buses Services; BRT terminal at Oyingbo; Ajeromi/Ifelodun Local Government Secretariat; cars parked in the premises of the Ministry of Environment, Alausa, Ikeja; the Federal High Court building at Igbosere and the Nigerian Ports Authority building at Marina.

The Zenith Bank, Polaris Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank buildings on Admiralty Way, Lekki were also torched along with the Lekki Toll Gate and Lekki Concession Company (LCC).

The Army authorities in a tweet denied involvement in the shooting of the protesters but video evidence proved otherwise.

The Lagos Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu,

also contradicted the Army, admitting that soldiers opened fire on #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki toll gate area in a bid to disperse them.

Sanwo-Olu said in a live broadcast on Wednesday that he was engaging the leadership of the Nigerian Army on the development, emphasising that as a state governor, the control of military forces was not under his purview.

He said, “For clarity, it is imperative to explain that no sitting governor controls the rules of engagement of the military. I have, nonetheless, ordered an investigation into the rules of engagement adopted by men of the Nigerian Army that were deployed to the Lekki toll gate last night.

“This is with a view to taking this up with higher commands of the Nigerian Army and to seek the intervention of Mr President in his capacity to as the Commander-in-Chief to unravel the sequence of events that happened yesterday (Tuesday) night.

Meanwhile, he initially said no life was lost at the Lekki toll gate but later in a tweet confirmed only one protester admitted in a private hospital dead.

The governor said two critically wounded victims had been operated on and were in stable condition while others with “mild to moderate” cases were still receiving treatments in various hospitals in the Lekki area.

“Myself and the leadership of the ministry of health have been going round. Indeed, we went round the hospitals last night. We went round mortuaries last night to see and to monitor for ourselves what has happened and to look for and identify the injured protesters.

“We personally visited the hospitals that took in these patients. 10 patients at the General Hospital in Lagos, 11 patients were at the two locations of the Reddington Hospitals both in Lekki and Victoria Island,” he said, adding others sets were at various hospitals in the Lekki area.

“I want to expressly say that over the night, two of them had to go through surgery and I am happy to say that they are all stable and they are recovering very well. Quite a number of others are just mild to moderate states.

“Indeed, three of them had been discharged this morning and I am told that additional three to four will be discharged anytime from now.”

The mayhem also extended to neighbouring Ogun State on Wednesday where a clash between miscreants and policemen led to the killing of the Divisional Crime Officer of Atan Ota Police station, a civilian and the burning down of the station building.

Although the Ogun State Government did not declare a curfew, many residents of the state living close to Lagos stayed indoors as youths mounted roadblocks on township roads.

Violence also erupted in Ebonyi State, forcing the State Governor, Dave Umahi to declare a 24-hour curfew.

The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike also declared a curfew on three local government areas in the state to halt violence in which some lives were lost.