The Coalition of Arewa All Progressives Congress (CAAPC) Support Group and APC Solidarity Group (ASG), strategic support platforms for President Muhammadu Buhari and the rulling APC have called for the arrest and interrogation of human right activist, Mr. Benjamin Onyejebose Onyema, Convener of the Jebose Movement over his recent outcry on the report of the Endsars panel confirming the event that happened 20th October 2020 as a massacre as he called on the International Criminal Court to investigate the present administration for unleashing the country’s military on innocent protesters.
The groups alleged that the action is capable of instigating the international community against the government of the day as the Federal and Lagos state government insists that nobody died in the operation.
The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the investigation of the Lekki Tollgate incident and cases of police brutality disclosed how it arrived at the finding that a massacre occurred at Lekki tollgate on the night of October 20, 2020.
In a response to the Lagos State government’s white paper, released recently, the panel said it adopted the dictionary meaning of ‘massacre’, which means an act of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty.’
In its report submitted on November 15, 2021 the panel said nine persons were killed at the Lekki tollgate, while several other protesters shot at, maimed, injured and assaulted.
The Lagos state government, in its white paper, had however countered the finding of the panel, saying there was no massacre at the Lekki tollgate.
Explaining the basis for its finding, the panel said 13 petitions relating to deaths and injuries, including amputations and multiple fractures from the Lekki tollgate were received, heard and believed, upon full hearing.
The panel said it also reviewed documents obtained from the Lekki Concession Company (LCC) and testimonies of survivors before it to arrive at the finding.
In a statement signed by Umar Danladi Chairman of the CAAPC and Rufai Oluwole, spokesperson of the ASG respectively, the groups claimed that Mr. Onyema’s continues criticism of the rulling government is deserving of a treasonable offence especially since his region, the south east gave the president only 5% vote during the last election. They insist that Onyema does not have any right to question the actions of the government on the Endsars massacre especially because the alleged massacre did not happen in his (Onyema’s) region, the south eastern part of the country but in Lagos state south West Nigeria.
Benjamin Onyema is a known pro-human right activist and has at every opportunity called for the protection of the fundamental human right of Nigerian citizens by the present government. He’s been very vocal about the manner the military opened fire on armless protesters who where chanting the Nigerian anthem while protesting the extra judicial killings and incessant harassment of youths by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) arm of the Nigerian Police Force.
