Former Army spokesman, Brigadier General Sani Usman (rtd), Thursday said that protesters, who were campaigning against Police brutality at Lekki Tollgate, on the 20 October 2020, were dispersed with blank bullets by soldiers.
Usman who disclosed this in an interview with the Arise Tv, maintained that soldiers used blank bullets as against live bullets propagated by many. He stated that blank bullets do not kill but can cause skin pigmentation.
His words: “People have decided to denigrate the military and to turn the military as the fall guy but evidence on ground does not support that assertion.
“Yes, there was the deployment of the military; to what extent and all that, it will be determined by the commission of enquiry.
“If you look at the canisters, they were blank ammo and blank ammo doesn’t even kill. At a close range, l – maybe 100-metres – maybe it will have some pigmentation on your skin.
“Remember the military are armed and by the nature of their training, they are trained to kill and I think the military in its wisdom instead of using live ammunition decided to use blank armour which is meant for training.
“I think they should be commended for that otherwise there would have been serious collateral damage, but they were professional enough to have done that.”
Meanwhile, The Nigerian Army on Tuesday had finally admitted its involvement in the assault on protesters in Lekki, Lagos State on the 20th of October 2020 after series of denials.
The Army says it did not act alone, but got involved at the invitation of the Lagos State Government, after a 24-hour curfew was imposed by the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
A statement signed by the Acting Deputy Director of the 81 Division of the Nigerian Army, Major Osoba Olaniyi says their involvement was as a result of the violence which led to several police stations being burnt , policemen killed and suspects in police custody released with weapons carted away.
The statement adds that it was at this point that the “Lagos State Government requested for the military to intervene in order to restore normalcy” and that the military followed all laid down procedures for internal security operations”
The division, however, insists that at no time did soldiers open fire on any civilian and says the viral video on social media alleging that civilians were killed by the military is untrue and aimed at causing anarchy in the country.