President Muhammadu Buhari has been asked to sack the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed immediately.
The call made by Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) follows the report of the Lagos Judicial Panel of inquiry into the October 20, 2020 massacre at the Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos State.
The report released on Monday, indicted the men of the Nigerian Army and Nigeria Police Force of having killed and maimed harmless youths protesting police brutality and bad governance in Nigeria.
But the minister, in a series of press conferences has continually denied anyone was killed when soldiers invaded the toll gate and opened fire on unarmed protesters.
Despite the Federal Government’s stance, the report shows obvious evidence that there was indeed a massacre at the Lekki tollgate.
HURIWA advocated Mohammed’s dismissal, arrest, and trial for his appalling falsehood which has now been contradicted by the #EndSARS judicial panel in Lagos.
The group made the demand in a statement issued on Tuesday, November 16, 2021.
The statement reads; “Huriwa is asking President Muhammadu Buhari as a biological father of many well-educated children, to order the arrest and prosecution of his minister of information Lai Mohammed for committing a grave and heartless offence that is equivalent to the denial of the Holocaust of the 6 million Jews by Adolf Hitler which is punishable by nearly half a century of incarceration.”
HURIWA “is also commending the brave members and Chairperson of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the #ENDSARS PROTESTS especially the circumstances surrounding the massive cases of extrajudicial killings by the Army and armed police when these armed forces opened fire with lethal weapons targeted at the unarmed protesters.”
The rights group has asked the President not to sweep the lawlessness of the security agencies under the carpets just as it said if the President allows his information minister to get away with the impunity of denying the massacre that happened before the eyes of the World captured live on video cameras, then he will be remembered long after he has retired from public office as a dictator who oversaw the genocide of young protesters and the generations unborn will never forgive him for this.
“President Muhammadu Buhari must note that as a Father of many Children he needs to ensure that impunity is never tolerated especially the extrajudicial killings of very youngsters of Nigeria by the Army just for protesting police Brutality”, HURIWA added.
