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Lekki Shootings: Soldiers used blank bullets, cannot kill- Ex-Army spokesperson
By Modupe Shodeinde
A former spokesperson of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier-General Sani Kukasheka Usman (retd.), has said that soldiers at the Lekki tollgate shooting used blanks bullets on the protesters and not live bullets.
According to him, these blank bullets are used in army trainings and cannot kill anybody, they can only cause at worst slight blister on the skin.
He said this during a live interview with Arise TV on Thursday.
Usman said: “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.” he added.
The former spokesperson also discredited claims made by the Amnesty International that the soldiers really killed protesters at the Lekki tollgate incident.
He stated that the army should be praised for the way they handled the situation rather than being criticised.
“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.” the ex-military officer said.
