Lekki shootings: Panel lacks power to sanction military - Army lawyers

The legal team representing the military before the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry and Restitution for Victims of SARS and Related Abuses says the panel lacks the power to ascribe any punishment or any sentence on anybody found guilty during the October 20 shootings at Lekki Toll Gate.

The team’s leader, Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN), while presenting a seven-page report to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, at Army Headquarters in Abuja yesterday, said the Nigerian army was not under any form of trial over the shooting that allegedly resulted in the death of the protesters.

He said the army was never summoned but was rather invited to throw light on what happened at the Lekki Toll Gate and as such, no single petition against the military outfit.

He said the Cable News Network and other international organisations were out to distract the Nigerian Army.

He said: “It must also be borne in mind that we were able to establish that the NA did not on its own volition set out to intervene in the crisis at the Lekki Toll gate.”

Buratai, represented by the Chief of Policy and Plans of the Nigerian Army, Lt. Gen. Lamidi Adeosun, said those who falsely and wrongly accused the army of deploying troops to shoot innocent protesters at Lekki last month must be ready to swallow their pride and apologize to the army and the country, by the time the judicial panel concludes its fact-finding.