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Nigerian filmmaker, Ideh Chukwuma popularly known as Onesoul has narrated his ordeal at the Lekki tollgate on Tuesday, October 20, where soldiers opened gunfire on #EndSars protesters.
AllNews earlier reported that the protesters at the Lekki tollgate came under heavy gunfire, shortly after the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu announced a 24-hour curfew, due to perceived violence.
Reports say some died, many were injured as others fled for their lives upon the gunfire, after soldiers arrived at the protest ground around 6:30 pm on the day.
Speaking with PremiumTimes, Onesoul who tried to rescue some victims of gunshots, said he didn't see any dead body at the time he arrived at the scene, as he had gone on a break after doctors detected that his blood pressure was getting high.
According to the filmmaker, he received a phone call while he wanted to get food that soldiers had arrived at the protest ground and shooting.
He said he sighted the military and saw people fleeing the protest ground, "It was when I came back I realised everyone was running helter-skelter and I saw people falling down. I saw blood, people being shot and it was all looking bad so I decided to keep going (driving) and I could see clearly this time that the army had surrounded the protesters. They were gathered together into a circle and the army surrounded them with their guns and they were still singing the national pledge while they were surrounded. They saw my car coming and I was waving the flag and one of the military guys was shouting “ Go back, go back” and I wouldn’t go back and I was like I want to check up on my friends and they shouted that I should “ Go back now!” and then I saw a lady that was shot on the leg and another guy who was shot in the hand."
He said he rescued a lot of people who had wounds and the third time he arrived at the tollgate, he got back with an ambulance to rescue others and according to him, one of them died.
"I took more people to GrandVille Hospital near VGC, and that was all I did that night. All the people I took to the hospital had gunshot wounds. There is a girl who was shot in the arm, another shot on the leg, and another shot in the neck and shoulder. It was all gunshot wounds, In short, they were shot and nobody can say the military did not shoot. But one of the people I took from Lekki tollgate died, that is the truth, and now the people that have died or that are dying or that did die was the next day."
"So there was a major unrest and fight at Ajegunle in Ajah between the police and thugs, so I was saving thugs and I was saving policemen. So the people that can testify that died, the guys I picked up from Victoria said they had a fight with the police but the people I took at the toll gate were shot by the police and that is the truth from my own perspective. If anybody has a dead body from the toll gate, such a person should provide, I do not have any dead body but I know people who were assaulted by the military."
Asked to describe the situation, OneSoul said "What I will say is, I have been hearing people say “Lekki massacre, Lekki massacre.” I have to be honest with you if you Google the term “massacre,” massacre is a situation where a group of people were being killed by rebels or the military and going by that particular point, I would have been able to tell you that I saw a lot of dead bodies, this is how they killed them, there were a lot of dead bodies and so it was a massacre. But from the time I came, I didn’t see any dead bodies but I can certainly tell you that there was a shooting, an unauthorised shooting. I will call it a raid, I will call it assault. I am going to term it assault and raid. That is what I would use. It was an assault and I and I may be wrong but because I didn’t see those bodies, and I have not seen a family member that has come to cry and say one two or three persons have died."
On artiste, DJ Switch's side of the story that says at least 15 died, the filmmaker said "If DJ Switch had seen that, she’s in the best position to say that because she was there. I cannot say she’s wrong. I was out of that circle. I was a few meters away. They were at the toll gate and I was a few meters away from them. I wasn’t there, I was at Lekki Phase 1. I can’t tell you what the military’s approach on their arrival was. So, I wouldn’t be able to tell you that they shot one, two, three, four, or five people. But I can certainly tell you that I took a lot of gunshot victims to the hospital.
"If I took about 13 people to the hospital myself, minus the ones that the governor confirmed that were injured, he said about thirty, that is forty-something, DJ Switch might not be wrong. I took 13 to the hospital. So, if DJ Switch said she saw 15 dead people, by her own records, because she was there so she can speak on that part. I can’t speak on that and none of the thirteen people that I took to the hospital has died. They are still alive and some of them have been discharged."
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