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The Federal Government has reacted to a report by CNN, a foreign media outlet, on the shooting of peaceful ENDSARS protesters in Lagos allegedly by security operatives.
Recalled the Nigerian Army, after admitting that its personnel were at the scene where the shooting took place, had maintained that it did not open fire at the protesters.
But an investigation carried out by CNN revealed on Wednesday that the Nigerian army used live bullets on protesters during its intervention in the #EndSARS protests in Lekki Toll Gate Plaza in Lagos.
The American cable network also unveiled the identity of a protester named Victor Sunday Ibanga, who reportedly died on the night of the shootings.
CNN said a forensic probe of the bullet casings recovered from the scene of the incident revealed that live bullets were fired at the protesters.
Reacting in a press briefing on Thursday, Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, described the report by CNN as “irresponsible journalism”.
Mohammed insisted that not a single body had been produced or a single family come out to claim their loved ones were killed at the Lekki Toll Gate Plaza.
He called for a sanction for the foreign media organisation but did not make clear where the sanction should come from.
The Information Minister also said the government stands by last Saturday’s testimony of the Commander of 81 Military Intelligence Brigade, Victoria Island, Lagos, Brig. Gen. Taiwo, who told the Judicial Panel of Inquiry instituted by the Lagos State Government that blank bullets were fired at the toll gate.
He added that some “unscrupulous persons” including celebrities circulated fake news on the social media that aggravated the violence that trailed the two-week demonstration of Inquiry instituted by the Lagos State Government that blank bullets were fired at the toll gate.
