Nigerians are still devastated from witnessing the #LekkiMassacre that left many young men and women dead and several others injured. Despite the clear evidence of the killings that were reported live on Instagram by Obianuju Catherine Udeh, popularly known as DJ Switch, some Nigerians have tried to debunk the credibility of the horrific incident that happened at the Lekki Toll-Gate on 20 October 2020, claiming the gruesome murder of the protesters was a mere rumour. On Friday, 23 October, DJ Switch made a video on Instagram to clear the air, and she made some shocking revelations.

A visibly shaken Switch narrated the traumatic experience she and fellow protesters had on that fateful night. Seeing her break down in tears while describing how the soldiers aimed their guns at the peaceful protesters killing many, is enough to tell that this was no fairy tale.

Another shocking revelation she made in the video was how members of the supposedly disbanded SARS unit also showed up at the scene of the protest to unleash more mayhem on the protesters.

She said:

“My life was being threatened for speaking up.

“People were falling left and right: there were soldiers there. Another part that people are not talking about – the police also came, the SARS people we’re talking about also came. We were tear-gassed, and the only thing we fought with was our flags.

“A boy jumped on me, shouting, cover her. I didn’t even understand why he did that. They shot that boy on my back. We carried dead bodies and dropped at the feet of the soldiers so that they could see what they did to us. And I asked their unit commander, why are you killing us? I wish we didn’t do that. I wish we kept the bodies because they ended up throwing the bodies in their van. This was up until the next morning.”

Watch the video here:

It is sad enough that our political leaders have trivialized an issue of such magnitude, and it hurts, even more, when fellow youths join them to deny that the #LekkiMassacre ever happened.

DJ Switch also had a word for our leaders.

She said:

“To our leaders, please, I urge you: do not minimize the suffering of families; do not insult the grief of Nigerians; do not insult the intelligence of Nigerians; do not insult the pain that families are facing.”

She also debunked the rumours making the rounds that 78 people were killed; appealing to rumour mongers to desist from spreading fake news about the number of people who were murdered on the protest ground.

She reaffirmed that seven people had been killed as at the time she was doing the live Instagram video during the protest. Sadly, the number of the dead increased to fifteen, and she didn’t get a chance to capture that as her phone battery had died.

She acknowledged the death toll could have been more than that, though, because several others had wounds from stray bullets. She also debunked the rumour that her cousin had died and urged social media users to always get their facts right before sharing any information on their handles as a rumour can do more harm than good.

“People did die, and it wasn’t photoshopped,” she said.

Many Nigerians were traumatized by the experience but are not discouraged; as well as DJ Switch. Despite the horrific experience, she urged the youth not to give up but to continue in the fight for change as another opportunity such as this may be hard to come by, if they give up now.

Uroupa Kiakubu