Atiku Demands Accountability on Lekki Shooting, Blasts Tinubu’s Economic Record

By Oyewale Oyelola

Former Vice-President and the Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC),Atiku Abubakar has demanded accountability for the October 2020 Lekki shooting, questioning who authorised security operatives to open fire on #EndSARS protesters.

Atiku in a statement issued on Tuesday via X platform criticised President Bola Tinubu’s administration over rising living costs.

Atiku, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, made the demands in a statement posted on his X account on Tuesday to mark the sixth anniversary of the incident.

“Six years after the Lekki shooting, Nigeria is still waiting for a clear answer to one devastating question: Who gave the order?” he asked.

He blamed the APC-led Federal Government for failing the people as it asked them to remember the Lekki shooting victims and said questions raised around the shooting remained.

“The APC has governed Nigeria through these six years. It cannot keep asking Nigerians to remember the dead while refusing to confront the unanswered questions,” Atiku said.

Reflecting on the anniversary of the Lekki shooting, where Nigeria’s current economic problems remain, Atiku noted that the problems of increasing prices for petrol, transportation and loss of purchasing power had impacted many Nigerian workers.

Giving an example of a young woman who had resigned from her job as her salary could no longer cover her transportation costs, Atiku quoted her as saying, “The pay no longer covers transport. Everything in Nigeria just dey increase in price. Feels like I’m working for Bolt guys.”

Atiku said the situation illustrated that the rising living costs had eroded the value of employment, with some workers struggling to afford the expenses associated with earning a living.

He said his Economic Recovery Plan had proposed ways of tackling the immediate effect of the high cost of living by reducing prices for goods and services, including petrol, increasing domestic production, cushioning minimum wage workers and students, and adding that the government should continue to cut down on its extravagance and spend less so that Nigerians could spend more on their personal needs without adding any more taxes.

Atiku further stated that answering the questions surrounding the Lekki shooting and addressing the economic challenges would restore the faith of young Nigerians in the country’s leadership.

“Young Nigerians deserve the truth about Lekki. They deserve a government that protects life, and an economy that gives work a chance to lead somewhere,” he said.