The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to dismiss, arrest, and trial the Minister of Information, Culture, and Tourism, Lai Mohammed, for his obvious misconception alleging that nobody died at the Lekki tollgate which has now been opposed by the report submitted by the judicial panel of inquiry in Lagos.
The call came following the report of the Panel of Investigation set by the Lagos State Government to unfold the happenings of October 20, 2020, at the Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos State.
HURIWA made the demand in a statement in line with the final judicial report and verdict by the Lagos State Judicial Panel of investigations.
According to the panel report, it’s revealed that the police and soldiers of the Nigerian Army killed and injured harmless youths protesting against police brutality and bad governance in Nigeria.
But Mohammed, in a series of press conferences has repeatedly denied anyone was killed when soldiers invaded the protest scene at the Lekki tollgate.
Despite the Federal Government’s stance, the report shows obvious evidence that there was indeed a massacre at the Lekki tollgate.
The 309-page report submitted by the judicial panel detailed how the Army and Police violated their rules of engagement during the protest.
HURIWA recalled that Mohammed also criticized the claim by Amnesty International that no fewer than 12 protesters were killed in Lagos State by security operatives during the EndSARS protest.
HURIWA “is asking President Muhammadu Buhari as a biological father of many well-educated children, to order the arrest and prosecution of his minister of information Lai Mohammed for committing a grave and heartless offense that is equivalent to the denial of the Holocaust of the 6 million Jews by Adolf Hitler which is punishable by nearly half a century of incarceration. ”
HURIWA “is also commending the brave members and Chairperson of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the #ENDSARS PROTESTS especially the circumstances surrounding the massive cases of extrajudicial killings by the Army and armed police when these armed forces opened fire with lethal weapons targeted at the unarmed protesters.”
The rights group has asked the President not to sweep the lawlessness of the security agencies under the carpets just as it said if the President allows his information minister to get away with the impunity of denying the massacre that happened before the eyes of the World captured live on video cameras, then he will be remembered long after he has retired from public office as a dictator who oversaw the genocide of young protesters and the generations unborn will never forgive him for this.
HURIWA affirmed that “President Muhammadu Buhari must note that as a Father of many Children he needs to ensure that impunity is never tolerated especially the extrajudicial killings of very youngsters of Nigeria by the Army just for protebrutalityice Brutality.”
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All those who ordered the shooting, those who shot the protesters and Lai Muhammad should be prosecuted with immediate effect