Miss Kamsiyochukwu Ibe, one of the #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020, was reportedly macheted in Lagos on Sunday.
Ibe testified before the Judicial Panel of Inquiry and Restitution for Victims of SARS related Abuses in Lagos State.
The attackers reportedly told her: “Oh we know you, shebi they have warned you people to stop, but you will not stop. When you die now, continue.”
A member of the Panel, Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), on Monday, who raised the alarm on threat to his life, revealed that Miss Ibe was macheted on Sunday.
“Just last night (Sunday), one of the prominent #EndSARS protesters who testified before the Panel, Miss Kamsiyochukwu Ibe, was attacked and dealt serious machete blows, in what was clearly an attempted murder, as reported by her counsel, with very disturbing photos,” Adegboruwa stated in a statement issued on Monday.
What was Ibe’s testimony at the panel? The Star extracted her testimony from the Panel’s report submitted to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu last week.
Evidence-In-Chief of Miss Ibe Perpetual Kamsichukwu:
Her evidence began with the witness stating that her name was Ibe Perpetual
Kamsichukwu, a lawn tennis coach who lives at 185, Ikorodu Road, Lagos State. She was before the Panel to testify in respect of the incident of the 20th of October, 2020.
She began her testimony by informing the Panel that she participated in the Lekki Toll Gate protest as one of the backstage organizers responsible for overseeing the welfare of the protesters. She stated that the protest went on smoothly and peacefully, thus giving her hope for a better Nigeria. It was her evidence that prior to the 20th of October, 2020 protesters had held a candle light event for victims of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) on Friday, 16th October, 2020. She stated that on the day of the candle night event, she and other protesters had requested staff of the LCC to switch off the lights but they were informed that the lights had never gone off previously. Despite this, the witness stated that the activities continued and the event was successful. She indicated that she went to Igbosere the following Monday and proceeded to her home to change clothes because she used to sleep at the protest ground sometimes in order to arrive at the Toll Gate to carry out the cleaning and
make other arrangement.
She went on to state that she arrived the Toll Gate at about 1:30p.m. on Tuesday, 20th October, 2020 because she and other protesters had been controlling traffic at the Jakande area. She also stated that it was while controlling the very heavy traffic that she heard about the curfew. As such, she decided to stay back at the protest ground since she could no longer go back home. She testified that after leaving Jakande for the Lekki toll gate, the protesters began arranging the barricades in such a way as to encapsulate everyone at the center of the protest ground. She indicated that while
doing this activity and also making arrangements for refreshments, she and other protesters noticed an LCC staff making a recording with his phone while standing atop the customer service building. This caused her to call the attention of two other protesters. She further testified that they allowed the staff to finish the recording before they accosted him and inquired as to what he was doing and he denied. She informed the Panel that the staff initially denied doing anything and that he had only been playing with his phone before eventually admitting that he was directed to make the recording by his boss. On this premise, they proceeded to delete the said recording.
Miss. Ibe also stated that while this was on-going, the protesters discovered that the billboard which the other LCC staff had told them had never gone off was turned off.
At this point, she and other protesters approached the LCC staff asking why the
billboard lights were turned off. Her testimony was that the staff said that they had been instructed to switch it off and that when she confronted the said staff about their claims that the billboard had never gone off before, the staff never responded.
She explained that she and other protesters were organizing food and water at the customer service area when they heard gunshots coming from the FourPoints Hotel area and people running helter-skelter at about 6:50p.m. She observed that protesters from the Eko Hotel side/SandFill areas were running towards others at the toll gate while everyone was looking for refuge. On her part, she ran to join the other protesters in the middle of the protest ground leaving just DJ Switch and Dabira on the stage. She explained that Dabira was one of the organizers while DJ Switch was an entertainer who sometimes came around the protest ground to remind the protesters of the reason why they were there.
She stated that on the day of the incident, DJ Switch had been around while Dabira was working with the other protesters on the stage. It was her testimony that DJ Switch and Dabira tried to calm the protesters down and also instructed them to get on their knees and wave the flag. Further, that while this was going on, she saw soldiers without name tags approaching. She testified that the soldiers repeatedly would shoot, stop and then approach the protesters. At this point, people were ‘dropping’ with various injuries while Dabira was still trying to calm the protesters down. DJ Switch also dropped the microphone and began attending to the people who had been shot, dead or injured close to her. She indicated that this formed the basis of the viral video made by DJ Switch. Everyone, according to the witness, was looking for hiding places.
She informed the Panel that the shooting went on for about forty-five (45) minutes and that she noticed a van drive in after which the shooting stopped. Someone who appeared to be the boss of the soldiers alighted and the soldiers immediately stood beside him. The said boss then approached the protesters asking them to leave. She recalled that when some of the protesters stood up to leave, they were shot. As a result, everyone was scared to stand up again. At this point, the witness stated that Dabira who she was beside her raised her hand to ask the said boss if she could go get an ambulance to convey the people who had been shot to the hospital. This boss gave her permission to leave after asking why the protesters were still at the Toll Gate after the curfew which was to take effect at 9p.m. had been declared. The witness indicated that they all replied that it was not yet 9p.m.
She testified that although Dabira tried to get her to follow her, she however ran back after informing her that she wanted to join the other protesters. A soldier then escorted Dabira to the exit to get the ambulance. She stated that although the ambulance arrived shortly thereafter, the soldiers did not let the ambulance through.
She stated that the said boss had left at this point. So, she started to shout that the army had sent the ambulance back. Eventually only two out of four ambulances were allowed in to attend to the corpses and injured protesters.
She informed the Panel that when she saw some soldiers looking for bullet shells at the scene, she beckoned to other ‘guys’ to also pick up the shells as the soldiers were trying to bury evidence. She indicated that although two of the soldiers heard her and looked at her; she paid them no mind and proceeded to take an old man who was at the scene to the ambulance. On her way back, she stated that the two soldiers who had overheard her earlier accosted her and said “Is this not the useless girl that asked them to pick bullet shells. If you say anything, I will hit you with the gun”. She responded by saying that “I said what is left, they should shoot me since they’ve killed our people.” She testified that she was then asked to leave the place.
It was at this point that she noticed that they had no name tags on their uniforms
because she had been a bit close to them. The shootings eventually stopped at about 11:30p.m. after which a Policeman who was dressed in white as opposed to their uniforms took over by throwing teargas and also shooting sporadically. She stated that the shooting continued while the protesters were surrounded by both the Police and soldiers. On their part, the protesters were looking for escape routes as the soldiers were still on ground even though they had stopped shooting.
Miss. Ibe informed the Panel that she, one Seye and Samuel Isah were eventually able to escape at about 1:30a.m. They found their way to the home of one of Seye’s friends who lived on Admiralty Road, Lekki to rest for the night. The next morning, the trio of them set out to the Lekki Toll Gate again where they heard that some of the protesters had been moved to Reddington and Vedic Lifecare hospitals. It was her evidence that the shooting was still ongoing. Upon their arrival at Reddington, they were denied access to the victims, which upset her. Eventually, they were given the details after a Pressman known as ‘Wordrapperman’ threatened to ‘drag’ the hospital on social media.
They were told that twenty-two persons comprising twenty-one, males and one female named ‘Esther’ were affected. She stated that one Michael Bakare, a
Twelve-year-old boy was shot in the arm by a Police Officer. Others were Damilola and Lekan, Samuel. She was shown the corpse of only one protester who was tagged ‘John Doe’ because the doctors did not know his name. Lastly, she informed the Panel that she saw seven corpses in the van of the soldiers on her way back from the customer service center.
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