The Federal Government through its minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed has dismissed the report by the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and other matters.
Recall that the panel had submitted a report to the Lagos State Government last week, testifying against the Nigerian Army on shooting of innocent protesters at the Lekki tollgate during the #EndSARS protest.
In its report, the panel said the “killing of unarmed protesters by soldiers on October 20, 2020 could be described in the context of a massacre”.
The panel discovered that the twelve persons were killed while scores of others sustained injuries at the toll gate, countering the claim of the Federal Government that security agents killed no one during the protest.
However, addressing newsmen during a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, the minister dismissed the report as one filled with discrepancies.
Mohammed noted that the findings of the panel were not backed up with facts as he maintained that a massacre never happened.
“Without mincing words, never in the history of any judicial panel in Nigeria has a report been so riddled with discrepancies and conclusions that are not backed up [with facts].
“It was a phantom massacre. The report in circulation cannot be relied upon. The leakage of an unsigned report to the public is not enough.
“There is absolutely nothing in the report, circulating, to change our mind that there was a massacre at the Lekki tollgate,” Lai said.
