Ahmed Taiwo, a brigadier general of the Nigerian Army, says the military is not happy that Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, denied inviting soldiers to restore peace and order in the state.
He stated this while appearing before the Lagos judicial panel on Saturday.
According to Taiwo, Sanwo-Olu called on the military for support on October 20, after the #EndSARS crisis degenerated into chaos.
“I spoke with the governor and said the army was unhappy that he said he did not ask the army to intervene. But I’m sure, after we’ve watched everything, we saw he had more than reasonable grounds to ask he army to intervene,” he said.
“Perhaps, it was the way everything went that made him say so.”
Following the outrage that trailed the Lekki tollgate incident, Sanwo-Olu blamed it on “forces beyond his direct control”.
“This is the toughest night of our lives as forces beyond our direct control have moved to make dark notes in our history, but we will face it and come out stronger,” the governor had said in a statement.
When he featured on CNN one week after the shooting, the governor said the army was responsible for the incident.
The army had denied being responsible while the federal government said it would investigate the tragic incident.
But Sanwo-Olu told CNN: “From the footage we could see, because there were some cameras at that facility, it seems to me that they would be men in military uniform—it should be Nigerian Army or something.”
Asked if he meant the military opened fire on protesters, he said: “Yes. That’s what the footage showed.”
The army later said the governor invited them to restore order after the protest went out of control.
