Soldiers manning the gate at the Military Hospital in Ikoyi prevented the Lagos judicial panel on End SARS from accessing the hospital’s mortuary as they investigate Lekki tollgate shooting.
The panel visited the hospital unannounced on Friday, October 30, to carry out an investigation into the shooting at Lekki tollgate where 15 protesters were reportedly killed.
Some witnesses of the Lekki shooting claimed the military had taken away bodies of those killed in the incident.
To investigate this allegation, the judicial panel visited the Military hospital in Ikoyi but met resistance at the gate of the hospital.
Ebun Adegboruwa, a member of the panel, told the soldiers, who stopped them at the gate, that the panel came to the hospital because it had intelligence that might help with its investigation.
“The facility is relevant to our investigation. We have a pathologist. We are here on the authority of the president, not only the governor,” he told journalists
“We are following due process, and it is important we visit the mortuary as it will help our findings.
“If we are not allowed access, we will go back and take other actions. We won’t force ourselves in. We have confidential information that the military hospital here is relevant in the investigation of the Lekki event.
“We heard this hospital is controlled by 65 battalion and under the 81 division. We are also taking steps to reach military authorities.”
Adegboruwa said though the panel does not have evidence that there are bodies of those killed at the tollgate in the hospital, it was at the facility to verify the claim that they were.
He also said the panel will continue its work until it gets to the truth of the matter.
Journalists were asked to leave the hospital premises and one of the soldiers threatened that “things will get dirty” if they refused.
After an initial resistance by the soldiers for about 30 minutes, the panel members were allowed on the hospital premises.
They were then taken to a non-functional mortuary the army claimed was under renovation.
