#EndSARS: DJ Switch Urges ICC To Probe Lekki Shooting

By Seun Adeuyi

Nigerian Disc Jockey turned Activist, DJ Switch has urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to commence its investigation on the shooting of unarmed #EndSARS protesters, who stationed in the Lekki Toll Gate area of Lagos State, two months ago, by the Nigerian Army.

She stated this on Thursday, while addressing the ICC’s prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, in a virtual event. Her appearance before the ICC came after Bensouda, had stated that there is a “reasonable basis to believe that members of the Nigerian Security Forces (NSF)” had committed crimes.

It would be recalled that on October 20, operatives of the Nigerian army had opened fire on the youth at Lekki. This was as pockets of violent attacks also broke out across the country.

DJ Switch, while speaking to the ICC,. said: “#EndSARS is a movement against police brutality, which has since become a much bigger movement against bad governance. The reason is simple. From President Muhammadu Buhari downwards, they are all SARS. This is a government that would rather silence and kill its citizens rather than be guided by their concerns and cries; hide COVID-19 palliatives, that were donated, rather than feed its people.

“One that would rather spend quality time with his cows rather than address its citizens. The same government chose to inject rogue elements into peaceful protests rather than protect its people. Yet it chose to cuddle terrorists.

“It is the same government that froze the accounts of protesters and seized passports but cannot seem to trace the accounts that sponsor terrorism. It states in the constitution that the security and welfare of the Nigerian people is the primary purpose of the government, but on the 20th of October 2020, the Nigerian Army sanctioned by the government stormed the Lekki tollgate in the first wave of assault. There was no warning, just guns blazing.

“We were forced to have a crash course on medical procedures, attempting to extract a bullet from the leg of a protester until one ambulance came from the back. So, please tell me, what then was their intention if not to kill us? At this point, we had counted 15 bodies. A few hours later came the second wave of us of assault by the Nigerian police with the same modus operandi, killing and injuring those of us left at the tollgate.

“The same police also shot at us the next morning. This is just one incident. There is Obigbo. There is Nkpor. There is Zabamari and more. The Nigerian authorities under the poor, corrupt, and misguided leadership of President Buhari down to his cohorts: Governor Jide Sanwo-Olu, General Tukur Buratai, Brigadier Taiwo, FO. Omata, Lai Mohammed, and many more have all tried severally to deny these events while contradicting themselves.”

In November, she had told a Canadian parliament that the soldiers who shot at unarmed demonstrator at Lekki toll gate told her they were acting on “orders from above.”