According to him, the use of “massacre” during the October 20, 2020 event is highly debatable.
The Vice Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Senator Yusuf Datti-Baba Ahmed says it is not certain if there was a massacre at the Lekki Tollgate in Lagos State on October 20, 2020.
Ahmed disclosed this on Thursday on Channels TV programme, Politics Today.
According to him, the use of “massacre” during the October 20, 2020 event is highly debatable.
“There was abuse of procedure, if some people interpret that as massacre. The use of 'massacre' in #EndSARS is highly debatable but I can say for sure there were abuses of procedure and civil rights violations,” he said.
He added that it was “heavy” to say that the Labour Party was a beneficiary of the #EndSARS protest.
Ahmed said, “It’s a very heavy statement to make, saying that our party, Labour Party is a beneficiary of EndSARS. While we are always on the side of the people, on side of good governance, we are against attrition; we are against repression and all those.
“You may be more correct to put it in another way, but we are not direct beneficiaries of EndSARS. The use of the word ‘massacre’ is highly debatable. We never wanted EndSARS to happen. We never want any Nigerian whatsoever to be attacked. Accordingly, we are not happy for anybody to say we are beneficiaries of EndSARS.
“We benefit from a peaceful Nigeria. That is what we benefit from. We benefit from progress and development. We are about correcting all the mistakes of bad governance.”
SaharaReporters had reported that soldiers on October 20, 2020 opened fire on the protesters, who had converged at the Lekki tollgate to protest against police brutality.
The incident triggered a global outrage, with calls for justice echoing from different parts of the world.
It was gathered that before the shooting started, some officials uninstalled the Closed Circuit Television cameras in the area.
The electricity at the protest area was also disconnected to prevent demonstrators from filming the attack.
Minutes later, heavily armed Nigerian Army personnel moved into the scene to complete the plan.
By the time sounds of their guns died down, dozens of protesters had been killed.
Though Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu blamed “forces beyond our control” for the attack, the army in a statement later revealed that the soldiers were invited to the scene of protest by the governor.
Also soldiers involved in the operation confirmed they were drafted in for the mission on the request of Sanwo-Olu.
Angered by the killings by the army and the Lagos State Government's suspected involvement in the massacre, angry residents attacked public properties and also destroying some known investments of a former governor of the state and Presidential Candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu.
Television Continental and The Nation Newspaper are two among several investments burnt by irate youths.
The toll plaza of the Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge, another money spinner said to be controlled by the former Lagos governor was also burnt.