By Shakirudeen Bankole
Nigerian youths have berated the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, over his purported discovery of a camcorder at the Lekki Toll Gate, venue of the Tuesday’s shootings which escalated crisis in the country, following the #EndSARS demonstrations.
Fashola alongside the Southwest Governors and some ministers had visited the scene of the incident on Sunday as part of their commiseration visit to the Lagos state Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-olu.
During the visit, Fashola, reportedly picked a disused camcorder on a pavement at the Toll Gate, saying it could serve as one of the evidences in the Lekki shooting enquiry.
Reacting to the development, Nigerian youths said it was totally miraculous to still find such object openly placed at the location, after the place had already been burnt, scavenged, and cleaned up.
Mr. Chimezie Udechukwu, a youth and an active participant in the #EndSARS protest, said the claim is not only absurd, it is inconsistent with the realities on ground.
According to him, “I can’t believe that after near one week, the former governor would surface from the Force Headquarters like Inspector Bediako! They always think we can be fooled,” he lamented.
Another youth, Adedayo Ogunnoiki, expressed doubt over the development, saying such could be part of ploys to frame certain innocent youths, criminally.
According to him, not only is the government untrustworthy, their moves as far as the response to the Lekki Tollgate shooting of protesters was concerned, have to be completely monitored and scrutinized.
“Don’t be surprised if that camera allegedly found is planted to implicate some people or someone in particular,” he added.
Another participant in the #EndSARS campaign, Mr Gbenga Ogunnowo, while speaking with The New Diplomat alleged that Fashola’s claim would amount to deliberate act to prejudicially circumvent the impartiality of the Panel of Enquiry set up to look into the issue.
Ogunnowo said “since Fashola is not a private investigator, and a member of the Panel of Enquiry set up to probe the unfortunate incident, it is none of his business to help it scavenge for evidences.
“We are not interested in anything order than the release of the video footage of the event. Since the Governor has promised that the CCTV was not removed, and it would have capture everything that happened that night, all we now await is the release of the camera footage,” he added.
