Nigerian Army Concede they Take Live Ammunitions to Lekki Tollgate
Commander of the 81 Division, Military Intelligence Brigade, Victoria Island, Brigadier-General Ahmed Taiwo, has agreed at the Lagos Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Saturday that the army went to the tollgate with both blank and live ammunitions.
He admitted this only under the fire of cross-examinination by lawyers to the #EndSARS protesters, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, SAN and Adeshina Ogunlana.
“We had men and materials – vehicles and rifles for shooting. A portion of the force carried live bullets in case they were attacked. Another portion carried magazines charged with blank ammunition,” he said.
When Olumide-Fusika asked Taiwo if soldiers who went to the tollgate carried guns, Taiwo said, “When you are talking of guns, you are talking about high-calibre guns. They were carrying rifles; not guns.”
When pressed further by Olumide-Fusika, Taiwo added, “Definitely, a portion of the Force will carry live bullets, in case they are attacked. But the soldiers that formed the firing team, who fired, used blank bullets. And that is why you watched the video and saw exactly what happened.”
Also, under cross-examination by Ogunlana, Taiwo explained that in Phase Four military internal security operation “soldiers would be given both live and blank bullets.”
He said, “In this particular case, we saw that the peaceful protest had been infiltrated by hoodlums. They were peaceful protesters, no doubt, but there were also hoodlums who sought to take advantage, that was why they were armed with blank bullets in addition with live bullets.”
An observer of the panel’s proceedings told Nigerian Sketch that revelations are “moving us gradually towards the truth. It was no live bullets. Now, they agreed they carried live bullets. Who knows what will happen next, they may concede that they really killed people.”
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