‘They cut me like thief’: #EndSARS protester attacked for testifying before panel

An eyewitness who testified before the Lagos State judicial panel on police brutality Monday said she was attacked for giving testimony to the panel.

Kamsiyochukwu Ibeh was one of the eyewitnesses that appeared before the panel, whose report, contradicts what the government said happened on the evening of October 20, 2020, when Nigerian soldiers opened fire on unarmed protesters.

The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and other matters said what happened at Lekki Toll Gate “could in context be described as a massacre.”

Ibeh, in a video published on social media, said she was attacked by three men in Lagos because of her testimony.

“I was attacked by three guys (men) whom I thought were passers-by,” she said in video while displaying the machete cuts on her body.

“I was standing at the bus stop waiting for a vehicle. Only for one of them to point a torchlight at my face, before pouncing on me with dangerous objects. They said my crime was because I testified before the panel.

“They said if they kill me, there would be no way for me to continue agitating for justice. I told them that I don’t know what they were talking about.

“They started hitting me. See all my body, back, leg, hand badly injured. They cut me like I am a thief. I survived by the grace of God because I almost died at that bus stop.”

A member of the panel Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa said in a statement on Monday that two government lawyers were inciting public opinions against him.

Adegboruwa last week said he would release the full content of the report of the investigation of the Lekki Toll Gate killings if the state governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu does not fulfil the promises he made about implementing the recommendations the panel made.

The lawyer said the attack on Ochuko was an apparent assassination attempt.

“Just last night, one of the prominent EndSARS protesters who testified before the Panel, Miss Kamsiyochukwu Ibe, was attacked and dealt serous machete blows, in what was clearly an attempted murder, as reported by her counsel, with very disturbing photos.” (The Guardian)