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By Segun James
The Lekki Toll Gate incident of October 2020 involving the Nigerian Army and #EndSARS protesters has attracted the attention of the United States in its “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2020’’, released yesterday by the United States – Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour.
In the report titled ‘Nigeria 2020 Human Rights Report, Executive Summary,’ the United States declared that “accurate information on fatalities resulting from the shooting was not available,” as at the end of 2020.
The report alleged that the Nigeria police, army, and other security services sometimes used force to disperse protesters and apprehend criminals and suspects.
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Published 31 March 2021
US Department of States says it could not verify if #EndSARS protesters were killed on October 20, 2020 at the Lekki tollgate.
The US department made this known in a report tagged ‘2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nigeria’.
A copy of the report was obtained by our correspondent on Tuesday.
The report said though soldiers fired ammunition into the air to disperse protesters, the number of fatalities could not be verified.
Part of the report read, “On October 20, members of the security forces enforced curfew by firing shots into the air to disperse protesters, who had gathered at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos to protest abusive practices by the Nigerian Police Force’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
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[files] An aerial view shows protesters gathering at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos, on October 15, 2020, during a demonstration to protest against police brutality and scrapping of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). Pierre FAVENNEC / AFP
Amnesty International on Thursday said the United States could have taken more time to evaluate all available evidence before publishing its reports on the October 2020 Lekki toll gate shooting. x
The US government, in its 45th annual human rights report, said “accurate information on the fatalities” from the shooting remained fuzzy, noting that apart from “Amnesty International which reported 10 persons died during the event, no other organization was able to verify the claim.”