NBA Condemns Killing of #EndSARS Protesters at Lekki

Following the killings at Lekki Toll Gate on Tuesday, the Nigerian Bar Association jas condemned the killing of peaceful #EndSARS protesters by soldiers at Lekki tollgate in Lagos.

In a statement signed by the President, Olumide Akpata, he asked the Nigerian Army to identify soldiers who carried out the attack and dismiss from its service.

He stated in the statement titled, ‘Nigerian Bar Association condemns the killing of peaceful #EndSARS protesters in Lagos by the Nigerian military’, the protesters’ act of misdemeanour of a breach of the curfew imposed by the Lagos State Government “did not warrant the use of live ammunition by the Nigerian military to confront otherwise peaceful, unarmed and defenceless protesters”.

The statement read in part, “The attention of the Nigerian Bar Association (“NBA”) has been drawn to the dastardly shooting and killing of #ENDSARS protesters at the Lekki Toll Plaza in Lagos State by some unidentified men of the Nigerian Military on Tuesday, 20th October 2020. From news reports on the incident, many lives were lost in the attack while several others were injured during the melee that ensued. The NBA strongly condemns this act of recklessness and lawlessness by the security apparatus of the Government in what, based on reports available to us, appears to have been a carefully calculated and premeditated attack.

“The NBA states that even if the protesters at the Lekki Toll Plaza were in breach of the curfew imposed by the Lagos State Government, such a misdemeanour or breach did not warrant the use of live ammunition by the Nigerian military to confront otherwise peaceful, unarmed and defenceless protesters.

“To be clear, the events of today are events that we should never see or consider as normal in any democracy.