On October 20, 2020, nine #EndSARS protesters were slain at the Lekki tollgate.
This was revealed in the findings of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS-Related Abuse and Other Matters, which our correspondent got on Monday.
Nine demonstrators were verified deceased, while four others were feared dead, according to the report.
According to the report, 48 people were killed in the Lekki event on October 20, 2020.
24 of the 48 victims were injured by gunshots, while 15 others were assaulted by military and police.
Professor John Obafunwa, a forensic pathologist at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, submitted 96 other corpses before the panel.
The protestors were slain by suspected police officers and military, according to the 309-page study.
"The evidence before the panel shows that after the Nigerian Army left, the Nigerian Police Force followed up with the killing of the protesters, shooting directly at fleeing protesters into the shanties and the Lagoon at the Lekki Phase 1 Foreshore, close to the Lekki Toll Gate, floating corpse and one shot close to Serah Ibrahim," according to the report.
"Security agencies and LASEHMU (Lagos State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit) retrieved several unidentified bodies and put them at various hospital mortuaries across Lagos State.
"On the morning of October 21st, 2020, three trucks with brushes beneath were brought to the Lekki Toll Gate to clean up the scene of bloodstains and other evidence.
"According to Professor John Obafunwa, a Forensic Pathologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, three bodies were deposited at the Mainland Hospital, Yaba Hospital, all from the Lekki Toll Gate, and an autopsy revealed death from bleeding caused by penetrating objects or rifled weapons."
"The Panel finds that the fact that some of the other 96 corpses on Professor Obafunwa's list are unidentified does not negate the possibility that some of them were killed in the Lekki Toll Gate Incident on October 20, 2020, or that some other unidentified corpses were removed by their families or the military, as claimed by the EndSARS protesters, far and beyond the list tendered by Professor Obafunwa."
The panel was established on October 19, 2020, to investigate civilian complaints of police abuses of human rights.
The Panel's terms of reference were increased in the aftermath of the incident at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020.
The panel deliberated for over a year, hearing from petitioners, witnesses, experts, and lawyers.
A total of 235 petitions were handled by the panel, with 70 victims receiving N410 million in compensation.
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