The Minister of Information & Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, yesterday in response to the panel’s report which was represented by Doris Okuwobi panel set up to investigate the attack on unarmed EndSARS protesters at Lekki toll gate on October 20, 2020. Lai Mohammed who described the panel’s report as false, containing that the numerous errors, inconsistencies, discrepancies and omissions had rendered it a fable.

Lai Mohammed states Lagos panel report a sham.

Lai Mohammed who equally questioned the panel for exempting the 57 innocent Nigerians, 37 policemen and six soldiers killed during the protests, wondering they were not Nigerians who deserved to be protected and defended.

The minister of Information & Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed who expressly expressed disappointment that the panel threw key fact testimony that soldiers did not use live-grade weapons on protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate but concluded without proper investigation that soldiers killed the protesters with weapons.

He also faulted the panel for contradicting itself by accepting the submission of a pathologist, Professor John Obafunwa, that only three of the bodies on which post-mortem were conducted were from Lekki and that only one had gunshot injury but went on to conclude that nine persons died of gunshot wounds at Lekki Toll Gate.

Lai Mohammed said: “Let me say that never in the history of any judicial panel in this country has its report been riddled with so many errors, inconsistencies, discrepancies,

What is circulating in public space is simply a lengthy discussion of unverified fake news that has been playing on social media since the incident of October 20, 2020.

It is simply incredible that a judicial panel set up to investigate an incident has submitted a report laden with allegations, the same allegations it was set up to investigate in the first instance.

Instead of sitting for all of one year, the panel could have just compiled social media ‘tales by moonlight’ on the incident and submitted, saving taxpayers’ funds and everyone’s time. That report is nothing but the triumph of fake news and the intimidation of a silent majority by a vociferous lynch mob.

It is clear from the ongoing that the report of the panel in circulation cannot be relied upon because its authenticity is in doubt. Besides, the Lagos State government, being the convening authority, is yet to release any official report to the public. Neither has the panel done so.

The cowardly leakage of an unsigned report to the public is not enough. Assuming the report in circulation bears any iota of genuineness, it is basic knowledge that the report of such a panel is of no force until the convening authority issues a White Paper and Gazette on it.

It is, therefore, too premature for any person or entity to seek to castigate the Federal Government and its agencies or officials based on such an unofficial and invalidated report. ‘No massacre in Lekki.’

There is absolutely nothing in the report that is circulating to make us change our stand that there was no massacre at Lekki on October 20, 2020. For us to change our stand, a well-investigated report of the incident that meets all required.