Lekki Shooting: Teary DJ Switch Narrates Experience At #EndSARS Protest

Nigerian Disc Jockey, Obianuju Udeh, better known as DJ Switch, has taken to social media to narrate her experience at the Lekki Toll Plaza on Tuesday.

Men in army camouflage had opened fire on unarmed #EndSARS protesters at the toll gate.

The State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in a broadcast on Wednesday morning said no death was recorded at the scene, although he later confirmed the death of a wounded individual at the hospital.

In a video shared on her Instagram page on Friday, she said she counted at least 15 persons who were shot dead by soldiers while several others sustained injuries.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CGr6VhEAi2z/?igshid=1etotron6wlgl

She claimed that soldiers threw the dead bodies of some of the protesters killed during the incident inside their vans.

DJ Switch, who streamed the shooting live via her Instagram page on Tuesday, said men of the Nigeria Police Force were also involved.

She said policemen teargassed them after the soldiers had left.

“We were teargassed. We would run and come back and the only thing we fought with was our flags. We would sit on the floor and raise our hands up, waiving the flags and singing the national anthem. That’s all we had,” the entertainer said.

“They put off the light. Even if there is no power in that axis, on a good day, there is always light at the Lekki toll gate. But on that day, there was no light, the street lights were off, it was pitch black.

“A boy jumped on me, asking that I should cover him. I didn’t even know why he did that. They shot that boy at my back. I fell while we were trying to pick up bullet shells. One landed close my ear while we picked one from someone’s laps.”

She called on Nigerian leaders not to “insult the pains and intelligence of families affected” by trying to downplay what happened during the incident.

“The military were there killing Nigerian citizens. The police and SARS came and were doing the same thing, aiming and shooting. They were pointing the gun at us and shooting live bullets. Who takes live bullets to protest ground? Who does that?” DJ Switch queried while holding some of the bullets she recovered from the scene.

“People were falling left and right. People did die, it wasn’t photoshopped,” she said.

“Something I think about now, with hindsight, which I wished we hadn’t done was carrying dead bodies and dropped at the feet of soldiers so that they could see what they did to us.

“When I asked their unit commander or something ‘why are you killing us’? I wish we didn’t do that because they ended up throwing the dead bodies inside their vans. This continued until the next morning.”

The DJ debunked claims that she earlier said 78 people died during the incident. She urged people to desist from peddling misinformation.

“I never said 78 people died. What I do know is that as of when I was doing my live video, seven people had died. When my phone went off, we had counted about 15 people,” DJ Switch said.

“I don’t know if it was more than that. We had a lot that had stray bullet wounds and all that. It’s also not true that my cousin died.”

Amnesty International had said that at least 12 people were killed on Tuesday at both Alausa and Lekki toll gate.

While Sanwo-Olu promised an investigation, President Muhammadu Buhari has kept mum about the shooting.