Buhari Media Organisation kicks against parallel investigation of Lekki shootings

The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has expressed reservation over the move by a group, Coalition for Survival of Covid-19, to conduct an independent investigation of the October shootings of unarmed protesters at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos.

Addressing newsmen at the BMO Secretariat in Abuja, its chairman, Niyi Akinsiju alleged that the initiative by the Coalition for Survival of Covid-19 to conduct an independent investigation was meant to rubbish the ongoing investigation set up by the Lagos State government.

The BMO which fingered Amnesty International and Transparency Initiative as the alleged masterminds of what it dismissed as a parallel investigative body, said the aim was to smear the image of the Nigerian Army with contrived testimonies.

“These local collaborators, operating under the guise of Coalition for Survival of Covid-19 and led by a prominent human rights lawyer, are bent on discrediting the judicial panel investigating the alleged Lekki shootings and the defunct SARS’ alleged brutalities.

“On the surface, this Covid-19 coalition is supposedly on a mission to enrich ongoing investigations into ‘age-long abuses suffered by Nigerians in the hand of members of the defunct Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS)’ in as many as 30 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) where panels have been set up. But there is more to it than meets the eye.

“These individuals who should have used the open platform of the judicial panel in Lagos to prove their claim of a massacre at the Lekki toll gate on October 20 are now colluding with Amnesty International which is still struggling to manufacture evidence of its allegations of a massacre that night by soldiers.

“Gentlemen, we have reasons to believe that this investigative panel which they intend to run parallel with the States’ Judicial Panel,  is nothing short of a charade paid for by Amnesty International and Transparency Initiative to smear the image of the Nigerian Army with contrived testimonies.

“A substantial fund running into US$750,000 (N360,000,000) has been provided and paid into an account outside the country. The information at our disposal is that the organisers are still expecting more funds for the hatchet job they have signed up for.

“Their modus operandi will include using people who will be identified as military men, with their faces masked, to present damaging ‘testimonies’ against the Army authorities.”

The BMO which further alleged that the proposed independent investigation enjoys the blessings of the Cable News Network, (CNN) ” to disregard the intended sensationalism that the parallel panel is purposed to generate.”

“We also have it on good authority that the United States’ Cable News Network (CNN), which blatantly refused to appear before the Lagos panel on its so-called investigative report on the Lekki incident is bracing up to give full coverage to the gathering.

“We invite Nigerians to see how some of our countrymen have descended to the level of dragging their own country for wads of dollars, and advise Nigerians to reject these enemies of the nation and their self-serving mission.

“We also urge security agencies to be alert to the antics of these lackeys of foreign bodies who rather than use their coalition for the purpose of galvanizing Nigerians to survive the negative impacts of Covid-19 and ensure equity is served through the ongoing public sittings of the judicial panels across the country, are more interested in helping their paymasters sustain the lies that they have been unable to prove for weeks.

“We do not think the causes of patriotism and nationalism are served in this enterprise of deliberate campaign of distortions and confusion that this parallel investigative panel would create.”

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