Lekki: Right groups give FG, Army 15-day ultimatum to fish out ‘killer’ soldiers
A coalition of four civil society groups- Campaign for Democracy (CD), Human Rights, Liberty Access and Peace Defenders’ Foundation (HURIDE), Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) and Igbo Elders Forum (IEF) – yesterday, gave 15-day ultimatum to the Federal Government and the Army to fish out soldiers that shot peaceful protesters at Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos, to avert another protest.
The groups berated Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for what they termed “double standard” of allegedly inviting soldiers, denying knowledge of who invited them and setting up panel to probe killings.
This is as the Amnesty International (AI) insisted that soldiers carried out the Lekki shootings.
On Tuesday, October 20, suspected soldiers opened fire at the Lekki tollgate where young protesters had been converging in Lagos.
While the army initially denied having a hand in the incident, it said on Tuesday that it got involved because the Lagos government invited it to restore order.
Speaking on behalf of the groups, Publicity Secretary of CD and Chairman CD, South East Zone, Dede Uzor A.Uzor, said if the ultimatum expired without meeting the demands it would be an invitation to “another mother of all protests that will shake the foundation of Nigeria.”
The groups berated Lagos government and the Army for pretending not to know the people behind the shooting when in actual sense they were united in sending troops to Lekki toll gate, a fact the soldiers themselves cannot deny.
Source: The Sun News
Nigeria records four more deaths from coronavirus
Four more people in Nigeria died from coronavirus complications, on Wednesday, taking the death toll from the virus to 1,139, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, has said.
Nigeria’s COVID-19 case count also increased by 147 to reach 62,371, keeping it fifth on the list of African countries hit hardest by the virus, behind Ethiopia, Egypt, Morocco and South Africa.
Nigeria has been reporting cases below 300 for at least three months.
Of the over 62,000 cases, about 58,095 persons have been discharged from hospitals after treatment while a little over 3,000 active cases remain in the country.
But despite the decline, authorities have cautioned against relenting. There is a possibility of an even more devastating second wave of coronavirus, the NCDC had warned.
The 147 new cases were reported from 12 states – Lagos (82), FCT (20), Rivers (9), Kaduna (8), Plateau (8), Benue (5), Edo (3), Kano (3), Nasarawa (3), Taraba (3), Ogun (2), Bauchi (1).
With 82 new infections on Wednesday, more than half of the daily tally, Lagos further stretched its lead on the number of infections to over 21,000, about a third of the country’s total.
Abuja, Nigeria’s capital and the second most impacted with a total of almost 6, 000 cases, also came second on Thursday with 20 infections.
Currently, Nigeria has tested over 600,000 of its 200 million population.
Source: Thisday