The International Criminal Court has confirmed that it is conducting a preliminary examination into the recent #EndSARS protests in Nigeria.
In a statement, the office of the ICC prosecutor said it had received information on alleged crimes.
The examination, the ICC statement said, will “assess whether the legal criteria for opening an investigation under the Rome Statute are met.”
Nigerian youths, under the EndSARS movement, had occupied major Nigerian cities in protest against extra-judicial killings, extortion, torture and intimidation by the Nigeria Police, especially its Special Unit, Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
But in the evening of October 20, 2020, a contingent of Nigerian Army troops were deployed to the Lekki Tollgate Plaza, the epicentre of the EndSARS protests, to disperse them.
But the peaceful protesters were shot at by the soldiers.
The Army, in a tweet on October 21, initially denied that its personnel were at the scene of the shootings, describing the report as ‘fake news.’
But, following evidence and pressure from different individuals and groups, the Army later admitted that its personnel were at the scene but were invited by the State government. This contrasted the earlier submission of the State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who in the morning of October 21 blamed the shootings on “forces beyond our direct control.”
The Army denied shooting the protesters while the Governor also said no one was killed in the exercise.
Global human rights group, Amnesty International, however said it had evidence that no fewer than 12 protesters were killed at the Lekki tollgate and Alausa areas of the State.
President Muhammadu Buhari told a meeting of former Nigerian Presidents and Heads of State that 51 civilians, 11 Police officers and seven soldiers were killed during the protests.
A former Spokesperson of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Sani Kukasheka Usman (rtd), said during a live interview with Arise TV on Thursday, October 29 that Nigerian soldiers were deployed but did not fire live bullets at protesters during the Lekki Tollgate incident.
According to General Usman, “if you look at the canisters, they were blank ammo and blank ammo don’t even kill. At a close range, l – maybe 100-metres – maybe it will have some pigmentation on your skin.
“Remember the military are armed and by the nature of their training, they are trained to kill and I think the military in its wisdom instead of using live ammunition decided to use blank armour which is meant for training.
“I think they should be commended for that otherwise there would have been serious collateral damage, but they were professional enough to have done that.”
On Monday, Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, said that it is likely that hoodlums wearing military fatigues, and not soldiers shot at the protesters.
In response to the shootings, the Lagos State government set up a judicial panel to look into what happened that night and also review all cases of SARS-related abuses.
But Amnesty International still insists that security forces opened fire on protesters, killing and injuring a number of people.
The ICC said it would make findings of the preliminary examination public.