On Tuesday President Muhammadu Buhari has been asked to sack the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed immediately.
The call came following the report of the Panel of Investigation set by the Lagos State Government to unravel the incidents of October 20, 2020, at the popular Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos State.
The report released during the week had indicted the police and soldiers of the Nigerian Army of having killed and maimed harmless youths protesting illicit police activities and bad governance in Nigeria.
But Mohammed, in a series of press conferences has continually denied anyone was killed when soldiers invaded the protest scene.
Despite the Federal Government’s stance, the report shows obvious evidence that there was indeed a massacre at the Lekki tollgate.
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) advocated his dismissal, arrest, and trial for his egregious falsehood which has now been contradicted by a judicial panel of investigators in Lagos.
HURIWA made the demand in a media statement made against the backdrops of the issuance of a conclusive judicial report and verdict by the Lagos State Judicial Panel of investigations.
The 309-page report detailed how the Army and Police disregarded their rules of engagement during the protest.
HURIWA recalled that Mohammed also faulted the claim by Amnesty International that no fewer than 12 protesters were killed in Lagos State by security operatives during the EndSARS protest.
HURIWA “is asking President Muhammadu Buhari as a biological father of many well-educated children, to order the arrest and prosecution of his minister of information Lai Mohammed for committing a grave and heartless offence that is equivalent to the denial of the Holocaust of the 6 million Jews by Adolf Hitler which is punishable by nearly half a century of incarceration. ”
HURIWA “is also commending the brave members and Chairperson of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the #ENDSARS PROTESTS especially the circumstances surrounding the massive cases of extrajudicial killings by the Army and armed police when these armed forces opened fire with lethal weapons targeted at the unarmed protesters.”
The rights group has asked the President not to sweep the lawlessness of the security agencies under the carpets just as it said if the President allows his information minister to get away with the impunity of denying the massacre that happened before the eyes of the World captured live on video cameras, then he will be remembered long after he has retired from public office as a dictator who oversaw the genocide of young protesters and the generations unborn will never forgive him for this.
“President Muhammadu Buhari must note that as a Father of many Children he needs to ensure that impunity is never tolerated especially the extrajudicial killings of very youngsters of Nigeria by the Army just for protesting police Brutality”, HURIWA affirmed.
