*Accuses Amnesty International, Transparency Initiatives of releasing $750,000 to destabilize country
The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) on Tuesday raised the alarm over alleged plots by some international agencies to initiate a parallel and independent probe panel of the October 20 alleged military killings at the Lekki toll gate during the last #EndSARS protests that rocked the country
BMO in a press briefing by its coordinator, Niyi Akinsuji, in Abuja alleged that the Coalition for Survival of Covid-19 has received N360 million paid into a foreign account to enable it execute a hatchet job of discrediting the Nigerian military over the recent Lekki toll gate shootings.
Akinsuji alleged further that the Amnesty International are collaborating with some local groups to with the intention to destabilise Nigeria under the guise of setting up a parallel investigative panel on human rights violations encountered, witnessed or heard during the recent EndSARS protests.
He disclosed that the Coalition for Survival of Covid-19 is led by prominent human rights lawyers, adding that the agenda is to discredit the judicial panel investigating the alleged Lekki shootings and the defunct SARS brutalities.
BMO said “On the surface, this covid-19 coalition is supposedly on a mission to enrich ongoing investigations into ‘age-long abuses suffered by Nigerians in the hand of members of the defunct Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS)’ in as many as 30 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) where panels have been set up, but there is more to it than meets the eye.
“These individuals who should have used the open platform of the judicial panel in Lagos to prove their claim of massacre at the Lekki toll gate on October 20 are now colluding with Amnesty International which is still struggling to manufacture evidence of its allegations of a massacre that night by soldiers.”
BMO noted that the investigative panel which they intend to run parallel with the States’ Judicial Panel, is “nothing short of a charade paid for by Amnesty International and Transparency Initiative to smear the image of the Nigerian Army with contrived testimonies.”
“A substantial fund running into US$750,000 (N360,000 000) has been provided and paid into an account outside the country. The information at our disposal is that the organisers are still expecting more funds for the hatchet job they have signed up for.
“Their modus operandi will include using people who will be identified as military men, with their faces masked, to present damaging ‘testimonies’ against the Army authorities.
“We also have it on good authority that the United States’ Cable News Network (CNN), which blatantly refused to appear before the Lagos panel on its so-called investigative report on the Lekki incident is bracing up to give full coverage to the gathering
“We also urge security agencies to be alert to the antics of these lackeys of foreign bodies who rather than use their coalition for the purpose of galvanizing Nigerians to survive the negative impacts of Covid-19 and ensure equity is served through the ongoing public sittings of the judicial panels across the country, are more interested in helping their paymasters sustain the lies that they have been unable to prove for weeks.
“We do not think the causes of patriotism and nationalism are served in this enterprise of deliberate campaign of distortions and confusion that this parallel investigative panel would create.
“On this note, we urge the Nigerian public to avail themselves of these revelations and to disregard the intended sensationalism that the parallel panel is purposed to generate”, BMO said.
