BRIGADIER General Ahmed Taiwo Commander of 81 Military Intelligence Brigade, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Saturday confirmed that soldiers who left Bonny Camp military base to #EndSARS Lekki Toll gate protest scene on October 20 had both blank and live bullets with them.
General Taiwo during a cross-examination based on his earlier testimony said although the soldiers were with live bullets but were not used by the soldiers who engaged protesters at the scene of the protest.
He had earlier made a presentation before the panel in defence of the Nigerian Army on November 14, but returned on Saturday for cross-examination by two counsel for #EndSARS protesters, Messrs Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN) and Mr Adesina Ogunlana.
Asked if soldiers who went to the toll gate carried guns, Taiwo said, “When you are talking of guns, you are talking about high-calibre guns. They were carrying rifles, not guns.”
When further probed if the soldiers’ rifles had only rubber bullets as he had earlier testified, the General said they had live bullets, but that it was meant for back up measures.
Earlier at the panel, the CCTV footage submitted by the Lekki Concession Company, operators of the tollgate was reviewed.
The footage showed that the scene was calm until about 6.43pm when people could be seen running towards the tollgate from the Oriental Hotel end.
Two minutes later, at 6.45pm, military trucks no fewer than seven were seeing with flashing headlights arrived the scene.
Later at 6.53pm, about 10 minutes after the arrival of the military vehicles, the tollgate went into a blackout.
'Niyi worked with The ICIR as an Investigative Reporter and Fact-checker from 2020 till September 2022. You can shoot him an email via [email protected]. You can as well follow him on Twitter via @niyi_oyedeji.