The National leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has denied any involvement in the Tuesday shooting of #EndSARS protesters by some soldiers at the Lekki Tollgate, in Lagos.
The shooting has attracted global outrage against the Nigerian authorities.
Several allegations have been made against Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, regarding the incident, with some people saying, without proof, that he “ordered” the shooting just to show his loyalty to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Asiwaju Tinubu was interviewed via telephone by a Channels TV reporter, Olu Philips.
“I will never be part of any carnage. The use of live ammunition (against the protesters) is condemnable in totality,” Asiwaju Tinubu said in an interview aired on Channels TV, Wednesday morning.
He said he did not “order” the shooting of the protesters. “There is a limitation here, I can only control my personal security guards,” he said.
He said he was “extremely shocked” when he heard about the shooting and that he was ready to “complain to the highest level”.
“It is early hours of the morning, there’s no way I can talk to the authorities or wake them up now. I have tried to reach the NSA, I have tried to reach the head of the army.
“I will never, never be part of any carnage. I will never be part of that.”
He denied having any investment in the Lekki Concession Company, the firm which manages the tollgate.
“I have no dime, no kobo investment in the tollgate,” he said.
Explaining further, Tinubu said he was even accused in some quarters of sponsoring the protest in Lagos state.
“We are about 13 to 14 days into the protests now. Before now, I was being accused and reported to the Presidency that I was behind the protests, that I was a sponsor of the protests.”
The APC chieftain while appealing to youths and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to respond to the demands of the protesters.
Some business concerns linked to Mr Tinubu, including The Nation newspaper and Television Continental (TVC), have been attacked in Lagos by hoodlums whose motives remain unclear.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Army has denied opening fire and killing peaceful #ENDSARS protesters at Lekki, Lagos state on Tuesday, despite photo and video evidence showing the shooters in military uniforms.
This was contained in a statement the Nigerian army released via its official Twitter handle on Wednesday.
The statement stated that no military personnel was at the scene of the shooting in Lekki.
The Nigerian Army simply described it as fake news.
