"The killing" - Part 3 - By Kemi Jinadu

#Writemas  If you miss part one, click here and for part two click here. “We have been looking for you everywhere,” a recognised voice in the car said according to the witness. 

“Thank God you are alive,” the man added.   In the car there were two other organisers amongst others that she was looking for earlier before the police shooting.

They continued to drive around looking for other organisers who are possibly alive, one of them suggested she should check into the hospital because the witness was not looking well and there was blood all over her outfit.

As they were driving along Lagos city, the street and roads were quiet not the usual noisy, always lively hustling and bustling Lagos.

They spotted some boys trying to break into stores, the next shop close to the shop was already broken into, some unknown men were loading stolen stuff onto motorbikes.  One (Akin) of the people in the car knew who own one of the shops so they decided to stop and help, ostensibly the neighbours were already aware of the robbery but strategically waited and stayed out of sight for the men to load the stolen goods onto their bikes.

Akin was trying to call the owner of the shop, the network was bad, as they parked the car next to the side of the road, they saw a man peeping from the side of the building. They told the man that those men carrying stuff onto bikes were thieves, the man said they knew, and promised the thieves will not escape.

As the men finally finished uploading, about seven to eight hefty men came out from different directions, to cut the story short two men out of the thieves were caught, they started pleading, one of them claimed they were asked to break into shops.

“Who asked you to break into shops?” One of the hefty men asked, but the men refused to disclose any name or identity and the thieves were taken to the police station, the others escaped, according to the witness.

At the police station, the policemen refused to arrest, or charge any robbery or looting related cases, the policemen nonchalantly dismissed them.  The policemen said they were not going to deal with any robbery or looting cases because they have more important things to do, the witness revealed.

The witness said they had to let the thieves go and continue their journey into the hospital, where she was medically checked and cleared of any severe injuries.

Answer to the dilemma of figuring out if the other organisers were still alive or dead needed to be ascertain.

So, the organisers agreed as they drove around to check the hospital mortuaries to see if they could identify and recognise dead bodies, which was what they decided to do throughout that week.

They went to several hospitals, access to mortuaries was denied and the pattern and reason for not granting entry were similar to all other morgues.

At a particular hospital close to the toll gate, after introducing themselves as Endsars organisers the receptionist stood up abruptly, she looked around like she was about to steal, according to the witness.

“Let me not waste your time, there are no dead bodies from the Endsars protest here, all the dead bodies that were brought here were later removed by solders, only God saved me on that day, don’t even bother looking here.”

According to the witness, they were not surprised but left feeling dejected.

The first hospital they went to divulged much more, told them that the government has instructed them not to allow anybody into the mortuary to identify Endsars dead bodies, she said they decided to argue that point; claiming family members are entitled to know the whereabout of their loved ones.

The hospital spokesperson responded by asking for birth certificate, passport, family pictures, childhood pictures of the missing person or deceased and the witness snap together before they could start the process of giving access to the mortuary.  This required documents and information made it extremely difficult for them to find missing members which four were later confirmed dead many months later.

Some people were still missing till date, no bodies to prove evidence of death.

The fundamental question again “who ordered the killing?”

At the time after the tragic incident many insinuated it was the Lagos state government who ordered the killings, many citizens were disappointed in Gov Sanwolu.

Even one of Yoruba’s key leader and former governor of Lagos state Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu was also a prime suspect of ordering the Endsars protest killings according to the allege accusations online at the time.

I remembered MC Oluomo, the Chairman of Lagos-National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and Tinubu’s other loyalist came out and defended Chief Tinubu vehemently.

Reflecting to the gloomy Endsars event, the sad episodes outlined previously, the witnesses, video clips and images that were circulated online; one thing was for sure, somebody, a political leader sitting at the pinnacle of sovereign within the political and military hierarchy ordered the killing.

Moreover, when many were accusing Chief Bola Tinubu of ordering the killings, and letting Lagosians down, he was not a suspect to me at all.   Chief Bola Tinubu was such an easy suspect, as a key political leader not just in Lagos state but also within the Yoruba tribe many were on the assumption that nothing happens within the Lagos board of authority without his knowledge.

Yes, that might be true to some extend but in this terrible event, the way the scene played out all fingers were pointing at Chief Bola Tinubu, he was an obvious and effortless suspect, no need to reconnoitre further.

Can I just put a disclaimer here, I don’t know Chief Bola Tinubu from anywhere, I am in no way related or have ever been in contact with him, of course the former SDP politician is far from being a saint but in this instance, he was targeted and a victim.

Logically, the way Chief Bola Tinubu was a prime suspect became suspicious to me.

However, did the Lagos state government asked for help beyond state level when they could not get the youth to stop protesting but to rather dialogue with them?

There was no doubt that the federal government became so uncomfortable with the Endsars protest going on across the country, the Lagos state faction was making international news, the federal government was portrayed negatively in the spotlight, prominent politicians and celebrities abroad started to show interest too.

The federal government had to act fast, put a stop to the noise and attention the Endsars protest were attracting.

Nigerian president Mohammadu Buhari had earlier put out a controversial tweet, the tweet triggered so much anger and complain from the Igbo tribe and the tweet was removed by twitter immediately, the tweet according to twitter guidelines was inciting and insinuating violence.  The same treatment given to former president Donald Trump was also ditched out to President Buhari, but the Nigerian president was not ban from using twitter like the former United State president.

Buhari’s tweet;

“Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War,” the tweet read.

“Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.”

So, what is the language the youth or the protesters understand? It’s within their human right to protest, protest, a means of expressing a collective dissatisfaction, grievance and complain to the government provided it’s peaceful. 

This move by twitter was an excuse to shut down the social media platform, an opportunity the federal government have been looking for, in the name of protecting Nigerian’s cyber space; it was even included in the operation-crocodile-smile which triggered an outcry.

Nobody hacked into Nigerian government cyberspace, not during any crucial activities or occasional event as if anything works, unlike the Russian versus U S, there were allegations of malpractices, rigging and tampering with online election.  One would understand if such countries did everything, they could do to protect their cyberspace, the unnecessary sudden obsession of online protection by the Nigerian government raises suspicion.  The agenda according to the re-introduced operation-crocodile-smile was to limit, control and deny social media access to Nigerians.

Lai Mohammed the minister for information would come out and address both Nigerians and foreigners, calling the youths and protesters thieves, rogues, taut, hooligans and even a terrorist.

The federal government was doing everything possible to portray the Endsars protest as a senseless, criminal, irrelevant and unlawful event, organised by lazy crooks.

In a televised meeting with INEC leader, the Nigerian president Buhari also stated again that “we will treat the youth in the language they understand,” that video clip was circulated online.

Again, what is that language that the youth understand? And why is this language they supposedly understood linked to the war? What happens during the war? And which type of people participated in the war?

Chief Bola Tinubu was known to be one of the key stakeholders in Lagos state, some people call him Lagos-Godfather, according to an ongoing long-time rumour, he’s also nursing an ambition to become Nigerian’s presidential candidate.

Tinubu has also helped in developing Lagos-state, things are not perfect or hundred percent but a level of development in the name of Eko o ni baje was evident to me compared to some other state within Nigeria.

If truly Chief Bola Tinubu has the intention of running for the next presidential election, majority of his potential votes will come from the South-Lagos-state, he ordering to kill his own people will be like stabbing himself in the feet, its detrimental to his political ambition.

Assessing and judging from the outlined incident so far, Lagos state did get some form of external assistant during the Endsars protest; at a point it seemed like the hooligans were about to hijack the protest, either the Lagos state asked for help, or the federal government offered to help.

It’s no doubt that the Lagos state accept the kindly gesture not knowing that it came with an ulterior motives, bait, setup, and trap.

Organised trap setup against the south-west Chief Bola Tinubu’s political ambition, setup to turn him against his people, to defame his name and character.

The motives were to cause confusion, disunity, chaos, division, uproar, damages, riot, and setback in the development of Lagos state and amongst South-West people, Lagos citizens and Indigenes.

After the Endsars killings, dirty, vicious, and wicked politicians working for the corrupt government used the hooligans to damage and destroy a lot of Lagos property, BRT busses, bus stations TV station and other buildings were burnt down.

The first reaction from the federal government was to deny any killings took place during the Endsars protest.  Lai Mohammed came out and blatantly deny the murderous act, called it fake news, threatened to sue CNN even with the overwhelming evidence CNN claimed was in their possession.

President Buhari did a presentation at the time, after the Endsars killings to address some crucial issues affecting the country, he did not for once mentioned or acknowledge the Lagos killings in his long-awaited speech.

Till today the federal government will not admit there was any killings during the Endsars protest, even after the Lagos investigative panel admitted there was killing.

The federal government continuous denial fixed the puzzle in retrospect and provided answers to reason why the army officers were picking up live ammunition, floating bodies in the river, carting away with dead bodies, storming hospitals going away with Endsars protester’s carcass.

All the army/military officers were trying to do was to clean up the evidence, but they did a bad job.

The recent Endsars investigative report showed that Lagos state was not in agreement or working with the federal government regarding the killings.

Lagos State, the land in which the massacre took place admitted that there was killings during the protest, federal government continue to deny, and even threaten to sue CNN.

Lai Mohammed recently referred to the Lagos report as a document that was full of error, inconsistency and lies, the minister of information informed the public to disregard the report.

So why is the federal government bent on denying the killings to the world?

The Endsars killings were premeditated, planned, some people working for the Lagos State government were bribed, they were positioned in strategic places, even though they seemed to be working for the state government but at that tragic moment; sadly, they were working for an external body.

A supreme power that has the military and army officers in the palm of his hands was in charge, invaded Lagos and ordered the killing during the Endsars protest.

The federal government continuous denial, and insensitive attitude raises suspicion and only pointed towards one direction and motive.

Written By K Jinadu

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