BABAJIDE Sanwo-Olu, Governor of Lagos State, has denied that there was death in yesterday’s attack against unarmed #ENDSARS protesters in the Lekki tollgate area of Lagos State.
Sanwo-Olu in a live broadcast to residents of the state on Wednesday morning, said images and video footages circulating on social media were false.
According to him, two critically wounded victims had been operated on and were in stable condition while others with “mild to moderate” cases are still receiving treatments at various hospitals.
“Fellow Lagosians, whilst we pray for the swift recovery of the injured, we have not recorded any fatality as against the widespread circulation on social media,” he said.
“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 had happened and to look 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.”
Sanwo-Olu, who admitted that soldiers opened fire on #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki toll gate area last night in a bid to disperse them, said he is currently engaging the leadership of the Nigerian Army on the development.
He stressed that as a governor of the state, he does not control the military forces.
“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 take this up with higher commands of the Nigerian Army and to seek the intervention of Mr President in his capacity as the Commander-In-Chief to unravel the sequence of events that happened yesterday (Tuesday) night.
Meanwhile, there were reports of sporadic shootings at unarmed #ENDSARS protesters at Lekki tollgate by soldiers on Tuesday night.
Before the shootings, there was a power outage and removal of CCTV cameras from the toll gate, as captured by video camera.
Many Lagosians have condemned the governor’s speech, saying it’s full of false narrative.
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