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BUSTED: Forensic Investigator Reveals Proof Of Shootings By Nigerian Soldiers At Peaceful #EndSARS Protesters At Lekki Tollgate

September 10, 2021

Funso, a forensic expert and Managing Director, Sentinel Forensics Limited, appeared before the Lagos panel with the report of a forensic investigation on Friday, being 11 months after the awful incident.

A United Kingdom-based forensic investigator, Joseph Funso has presented proof that arson and shooting occurred on October 20, 2020, during #EndSARS protest staged at Lekki Tollgate protest, to the Lagos State Judicial Panel on Restitution of Victims of SARS-Related Abuses and Other Matters. 

Funso, a forensic expert and Managing Director, Sentinel Forensics Limited, appeared before the Lagos panel with the report of a forensic investigation on Friday, being 11 months after the awful incident, Foundation for Investigative Journalism reports.

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SaharaReporters had published a series of reports about how the Nigerian government deployed military men to Lekki Tollgate on Tuesday, 20th October, 2020, where they fired live bullets at peaceful protesters. 

The #EndSARS protest was largely against the brutality of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Sqaud (SARS), a lawless unit of the Nigeria Police Force.

The protests, which lasted two weeks, were brought to an abrupt end on the night men in military uniforms killed protesters in Lekki, and other parts of the country, which degenerated into reprisals by hoodlums who hijacked the incident to loot and raze public and private properties in Lagos.  

According to FIJ, Sentinel, however, had received CCTV footage and other exhibits from Lekki Concession Company and the Nigerian Army, through the judicial board inaugurated on the matter, for forensic inspection.

“(We were) to examine CCTV footage and give analysis on video footage to the panel, give an expert opinion on findings made at the scene of the protest on October 20, 2020, and give a full report on findings,” he said.

“We received from the tribunal items four evidence, which include: one Seagate external hard drive designated to contain CCTV footage of the 20th of October 2020, at the Lekki Tollgate plaza and one SMI USB drive designated to contain CCTV footage of the incident presented by the Nigerian Army.

“We also received two spent shell casings of bullets recovered at the scene, four ammunitions tendered as exhibits by the Nigerian Army, one blank expended ammunition, one blank unexpended ammunition, one live expended ammunition and one live unexpended ammunition.”

The expert also disclosed that Sentinel visited the site of the incident at Lekki Tollgate to get on-the-ground evidence.

He said, “We also reviewed the items of evidence that were presented to us, and in line with our second and fifth mandates, under our terms of engagement, produced a comprehensive forensic report on our scene investigation and evidence review in hard copy and electronic presentation.

“Thorough examination of the surrounding areas and edifice of admiralty plaza showed extensive signs of vandalism and arson.”

The Nigerian Army had repeatedly lied and denied that its personnel killed peaceful #EndSARS protesters.