Five months after the tragic incident at Lekki Toll that brought to a terrifying end the mass agitation against police brutality in Nigeria – #EndSARS, a new campaign seems afoot to discredit the indisputable fact that a shooting happened on the night of October 20, 2020.

The United States ‘2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices’ is widely cited as the source of this ‘information,’ but what does it really say?

An investigative report by CNN in November 2020 laid out all the available data on what transpired that night using footage from an IG Live stream by Nigerian DJ, Obianuju Catherine Udeh, popularly known as DJ Switch, among other available data.

The documentary, an offering that said simply, “do with this what you will,” sent the country’s ruling elite into a frenzy, and almost unilaterally forced the confession of those in charge about details as minor as whether or not armed soldiers were present at Lekki on the night of October 20, 2020. This is after sustained demand by Nigerians living in Nigeria for those in charge to present who gave the order went unanswered for over a month.

The latest US report noted in part that, “Accurate information on fatalities from the shooting was not available at year’s end. Amnesty International reported 10 persons died during the event, but the government disputed Amnesty’s report, and no organisation was able to verify the claim.”

To break this tiny but relevant bit of the report, the key things to note is, a ‘shooting’ happened. Fatalities happening isn’t in dispute, the number of them is. And that ‘no organisation was able to verify the claim’ was only until year’s end.

A concerted effort by investigative journalist, Fisayo Soyombo, has since published a three-part investigative piece that followed the trail of victims of the Lekki Massacre.

It is not inaccurate, therefore, nor unkind, to say that doubting whether the Lekki Massacre happened is the past time of the willfully ignorant at this point. Better yet, it is obvious even to the blind that the seasonally sprouting online campaigns debunking the Lekki Massacre since October 20, 2020, are flailing attempts to save face by a government determined to shark responsibility for a major mess up.

Ado Aminu

Ado Aminu writes to expand human stories. When not reading, writing or arguing about how the patriarchy has and continues to ruin everything, you’ll find him daydreaming about his next cup of coffee. You can follow him on Twitter @PettyMuse.