The Nigeria Army has revealed why it appeared to be lying about what transpired at the Lekki tollgate last month when soldiers swooped on peaceful demonstrators.
The protesters demanding extensive police reforms were taken unawares when military personnel arrived their protest venue and opened live rounds on them.
While several lives were lost others have reportedly sustained various level of injuries while trying to scamper for safety.
Hours after the incident, military authorities denied being at the scene. This was after describing the incident as fake news and non-existent.
When confronted with video clips evidence, the military admitted its personnel were present but only shot blank bullets into the air to disperse the seemingly defiant protesters.
While testifying before the Lagos State judicial panel set up by the state government to unravel what happened, Brigadier-General, Ahmed Taiwo, the Commander 81 of the Military Intelligence Brigade, yesterday, admitted live rounds were used during the incident.
He also said the military lied about the events because of unavailability of facts.
”The first statement was born out of the fact that we did not have the facts available to us and the second was because nobody was sent to the Lekki tollgate to breakup any protest” Mr Taiwo told the panel on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the federal government has said it was very satisfied with the conduct of security agencies during the protests held globally.
