We will never forget the 20th of October, 2020. The day peaceful protesters were gunned down by the military in Lagos, Nigeria.

We will never forget that a curfew was imposed on the citizens of Lagos without ample time for people to prepare.

We will never forget that the time of the curfew was extended from 4pm to 9pm to give people some time to get home safely.

We will never forget that the lights were turned off at the Admiralty toll plaza and the billboard over the Lekki toll gate was shutdown.

We will never forget that the only thing these peaceful protesters did was to block the tollgate and didn’t deserve to die.

We will never forget that these protesters had no guns or weapons to fight back.

We will never forget the people we saw on Instagram live, fighting for their lives while makeshift surgeries were being performed to remove bullets from their bodies.

We will never forget all the blood we saw and the tears that welled up our eyes.

We will never forget Dj Switch’s bravery. She stayed and kept recording until the network got jammed and her phone died.

We will never forget the sounds of gunshots we heard in our various homes and how terrified we were that we couldn’t sleep that night.

We will never forget that all we asked for was SARS to be dissolved and the Nigerian police force reformed.

We will never forget, no matter how many explanations “they” give and how many lies “they” tell to disguise the truth.

We will never forget the innocent lives that were lost that day.

We will never forget what we saw.

We will never forget!

Mariam Shittu

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