After weeks of denials, the Nigerian army has finally admitted that soldiers were given both live and blank bullets when they were deployed to protests at Lekki toll gate on October 20.
The admission was made during a sitting of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on SARS brutalities on Saturday.
Brig. Gen. Ahmed Taiwo told the panel that “The soldiers they were both given both live and blank bullets. In this particular case, we saw that these protests had been infiltrated by some hoodlums,”
“You had peaceful protesters no doubt. But there were also hoodlums who sought to take advantage. That is why they were armed (with) blank bullets in addition to the live (bullets) they were carrying.”
The army admission contradicts previous statements from both security agencies and federal government about the incident including from Taiwo himself who told the judicial panel previously that the soldiers were firing in the air and firing blank ammunition.
On Thursday, Minister for Information and Culture Lai Mohammed said that the military “fired blank ammunition in the air.”
