One of the coordinators of the #EndSARS protest, Sarah Ibrahim, has said she witnessed how soldiers and later policemen shot innocent and unarmed protesters at the Lekki toll gate.
She disclosed this on Saturday in her testimony at the resumed sitting of the Lagos State Judicial Panel on Restriction for victims of SARS and other related matters.
The witness had told the panel at a previous sitting that she was at the protest ground in Lekki every day, coordinating some of the activities and that she was an eyewitness to the shooting on the night of October 20, 2020.
The panel was running against time after it got a three-month extension to complete the hearing and give decisions in the 235 petitions it received from the public.
in its efforts to make up for some of the time it lost to the Easter holidays, 17 cases were listed for hearing by the panel on Saturday as opposed to the 10 to 12 it usually hears at a sitting.
It was gathered that from the over 235 petitions the panel has received, there were 14 cases related to the Lekki shooting.
Led in evidence by her counsel and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Yinka Olumide-Fasuka, Serah described herself as a freelance auditor as she continued her testimony of the events of the night on Saturday.
She tendered in evidence two flash drives which contained photos and videos that suggested that the Lekki Concession Company (LCC) had more visuals in its custody capable of revealing what exactly transpired on the night of the incident.
According to her, the evidence suggested that the LCC had more cameras on the ground on the night of the incident to show what really happened during the shooting.
The witness told the panel that over five different cameras were on ground, but most of them have now been removed.
The witness went on to give a very lengthy narrative of how soldiers shot at protesters, the activities of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), and some operatives of the Maroko Police Station who she claimed shot at protesters.
“This was the live one (bullet) that was cocked in front of me; I picked it myself,” Serah said.
She also alleged that a hospital refused to release information about some of the protesters receiving treatment after the shooting at the Lekki toll gate.
After giving her testimony, the panel admitted in evidence some bullets which the witness said she picked from the floor during the shooting.
It also granted the request of Serah’s lawyer to summon the Director of Hospital Administration and HR of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Mr. K. F. Gbajumo, who allegedly issued a memo prohibiting his staff from giving out information on the victims.
On the next adjourned date, the witness is expected to play more of the videos she gathered on the night of the incident to further prove her narration of the events of the shooting at the protest venue.
