Nigerian playwright and essayist, Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, known as Wole Soyinka claims that Lagos State governor is not guilty of the killings. He said in a statement that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, did not send Army to open fire at the protesters in Lekki on Tuesday October 20,2020.
The poet, Soyinka in a statement on Wednesday claimed that the governor is innocent of the charges.
In his words, he said, “It is absolutely essential to let this government know that the Army has now replaced SARS in the demonic album of the protesters.
My enquiry so far indicates that the Lagos governor did not invite in the Army, did not complain of a ‘breakdown in law and order’. Nevertheless the Centre has chosen to act in an authoritarian manner and has inflicted a near incurable wound on the community psyche.
At that earlier mention Lagos sector, Lekki, where most of the affirmative action gatherings had taken place, soldiers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators, killing and wounding a yet undetermined number. One such extra-judicial killing has drenched the Nigerian flag in the blood of innocents – and not symbolically.
The video has, in accustomed parlance, ‘gone viral’. I have spoken by phone to eye-witnesses. One, a noted public figure has shared his first hand testimony on television. The government should cease to insult this nation with petulant denials.”