Thread by @JustSociety4all

The United States of America Department of State did not conduct any independent investigation into the Lekki Massacre of October 2020.

In it's annual Country Report to the US Congress and the American public, it restated in summary, the report of the various Agencies that

investigated the Massacre at Lekki, including statements made by the Nigerian Government.

The report does not say that the Department of State conducted its own investigations on the wanton killings. The State Department presented a summary of the various reports,

as it is its practice annually.

Those who are engaging in the mischief of saying that the report exonerated the Nigeria Army and Government of any killings at Lekki had better read the report again and get an educated understanding of the nature of the report.

It was a summary of the various reports, not the report of an investigation conducted by itself. The US Department of State did not exonerate the Nigerian Government of any killings at Lekki. Facts are sacred.

THE REPORT OF THE US DEPARTMENT OF STATE:

a. Arbitrary Deprivation of Life and other Unlawful or Politically Motivated Killings
There were reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary, unlawful,
or extrajudicial killings. At times authorities sought to investigate, and when found culpable, held police,

military, or other security force personnel accountable
for the use of excessive or deadly force or for the deaths of persons in custody, but impunity in such cases remained a significant problem. State and federal panels of inquiry investigating suspicious deaths did not always

make their findings public.
The national police, army, and other security services sometimes used force to disperse protesters and apprehend criminals and suspects. Police forces engaging
in crowd-control operations generally attempted to disperse crowds using nonlethal tactics

such as firing tear gas, before escalating their use of force.
On October 20, members of the security forces enforced curfew by firing shots into the air to disperse protesters, who had gathered at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos to
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for

2020
United States Department of State • Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Protest abusive practices by the Nigerian Police Force’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

Accurate information on fatalities resulting from the shooting was not available at year’s end. Amnesty International reported 10 persons died during the event, but the government disputed Amnesty’s report, and no other organization was able to verify the claim. The government

reported two deaths
connected to the event. One body from the toll gate showed signs of blunt force trauma. A second body from another location in Lagos State had bullet wounds.
The government acknowledged that soldiers armed with live ammunition were present at the Lekki Toll

Gate. At year’s end the Lagos State Judicial Panel of
Inquiry and Restitution continued to hear testimony and investigate the shooting at Lekki Toll Gate.
There were no reports of the federal government further investigating or publicly
holding individuals accountable for the

Nigerian Army’s 2015 killing and subsequent mass burial of 347 members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) and other civilians. There was also no evidence that any members of the armed forces were held accountable for clashes in Abuja with IMN protesters in October and

December 2018 that reportedly killed at least 42 persons.
In August a military court-martial convicted a soldier and sentenced him to 55 years in prison after he committed a homicide while deployed in Zamfara State.
There were reports of arbitrary and unlawful killings related

to internal conflicts in the Northeast and other areas (see section 1.g.).
Criminal gangs also killed numerous persons during the year.