A Twitter user, Bayo Adedosu {@BayoAdedosu}, has announced the total of one million naira (N1,000,000) as the reward for anyone willing to prove beyond reasonable doubt that men of the Nigerian Army truly killed some protesters demanding for the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) a unit of the Nigerian Police Force.
In a series of tweets by Mr. Bayo, he initially offered a fifty thousand (N50,000) reward, the tweet however got the attention of other twitter users joined in contributing to the reward which rose to a million naira within a few hours of the tweet being posted on Sunday.
Mr. Bayo said the reward will be given to anyone who “can come forward with verifiable pictures of dead people from the Lekki Toll Gate “shooting”.
“You must be ready to prove that you took the pictures, the pictures must have timestamp and be assured that you’re safe,” Bayo tweeted.
Recall that there have been swirling allegations most especially from twitter users that men of the Nigerian Army deployed to restore order at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20 shot at the EndSARS protesters, an allegation which has been confirmed by government sources to be untrue.
The Nigerian Army, in its response to the allegation admitted that its soldiers were deployed to restore order, but denied they opened fire on the gathered crowd protesting against police brutality.
The army spokesman, Major Osoba Olaniyi, said soldiers were sent to enforce a curfew. However, he denied that the troops shot at the protesters.
“At no time did soldiers of the Nigerian army open fire on any civilian,” Olaniyi said in a statement.
Olaniyi said soldiers were deployed on orders from the Lagos state government due to “violence which led to several police stations being burnt, policemen killed, suspects in police custody released and weapons carted away”.