#EndSARS: Use of massacre ‘highly debatable’, but there were rights violations – Baba-Ahmed

Vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed on Thursday said it was “highly debatable” to use the word massacre to describe the October 20, 2020 #EndSARS incident at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos.

However, he stressed that there were surely abuse of procedures and civil rights violations during the incident.

Mr Baba-Ahmed made the comments during his appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

“There was abuse of human rights,” he said. “There was abuse of procedure. If some people interpret those as massacre, then yes.

“However, massacre has different technical meanings. I can’t say I know all of it, but I know massacre requires the assailant to have . . . first of all, no advance notice was given, before the attack. And the victims must have been attacked in their own areas.

“Now these are well-meaning Nigerians who brought themselves out to a public area and were attacked by the security forces that are meant to be protecting their lives and property.

“The use of massacre is highly debatable, but I can say for sure that there were abuses of procedure and civil rights violations.”

Many Nigerians on Thursday had marked the second-year anniversary of the deadly Lekki toll gate shootings.