The Nigerian Army on Saturday said the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, lied about the Lekki shooting and that the army was unhappy about it.
The Commander, 81 Division and Head, Military Intelligence Brigade, Ibrahim Taiwo, said this while testifying before the Lagos Judicial Panel of Inquiry about the October 20 incident.
Mr Taiwo told the panel that there were lots of misinformation about the incident, all targeted at the army, but said they were particularly unhappy about the “lie” of Mr Sanwo-Olu.
“The Nigerian Army was not happy about two things, the first is the lie that he did not ask the army to intervene, while in fact, it was the proper thing to do as the police were already overrun.
“There were reasonable grounds to ask the army to intervene. Perhaps it was the way everything went that made him say so,” he said.
The commander said the governor made a call to the Chief of Army Staff and the General Officer Commanding the division after asking the Commander of 9 Brigade to intervene.
“The Commander 9 Brigade cannot intervene because the procedure does not follow and asked him to call the Chief of Army Staff and the GOC,” he said.
He also insisted that the military only fired into the air and not directly at the #EndSARS protesters.
While explaining that the blank bullets used cannot cause any damage to the flesh, Brigadier Taiwo said if real bullets were indeed fired, one bullet had the potency to kill three persons at one shot.
General Taiwo, who is the Commander of the 81 Military Intelligence Brigade, confirmed that soldiers were at the venue of the protest.
He added that the soldiers were briefed before they were deployed to the scene and debriefed after the operation.
