Yekini in a paid advert on ThisDay newspaper on Wednesday described the leaked report of the Lagos State Judicial Panel as fake.

A Nigerian lecturer has spent millions on newspaper advert just to discredit the report of the Lagos State Judicial Panel. 

According to a report by Sahara Reporters, the lecturer who teaches at the Lagos State University (LASU), Dr Abubakri Yekini in the advert said there was no “massacre” at the Lekki toll gate on October 20, 2020. 

Yekini in a paid advert on ThisDay newspaper on Wednesday described the leaked report of the Lagos State Judicial Panel as fake.

While the advert is worth about N1.9million, Nigerian professors did not earn more than N416,000 as a monthly salary.

Yekini is not yet a professor and should have spent approximately about five times his salary on the advert. 

The Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel submitted its report to the Lagos State Government, noting that at least nine persons were confirmed dead at the Lekki toll plaza when soldiers stormed the tollgate to disperse EndSARS protesters on October 20, 2020. 

The 309-page report stated, “The atrocious maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters while sitting on the floor and waving their Nigerian flags and while singing the National Anthem can be equated to a massacre in context.” 

The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who received the report on Monday, constituted a committee to bring forward a White Paper within the next two weeks to be considered by the Lagos State Executive Council. 

However, Yekini, a lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the institution on Wednesday put a center spread to debunk the report. Sources told SaharaReporters that the advert was about at least N1.9million. 

“N2,418,750 is the full rate with VAT and discount of 20% is N1,935,000. He must have paid something like this, depending on the discount he got which is relative.

“Negotiations’ ability and talking to the right people; so the centre spread advert costs about N1.9million after discount. But it could vary depending on who he talked to and the discount he got. Where did he get the money when it cost more than his salary to do so?” 

This is coming a few days after Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, University of Lagos chapter, Dr Dele Ashiru, revealed that Nigerian professors did not earn more than N416,000 as a monthly salary. 

Ashiru during an interview on Channels Television, stated that university lecturers deserved better welfare packages. 

He said, “No Nigerian professor earns more than N416,000 in a month as the total package. We are saying let us renegotiate this agreement so that people’s conditions of service will improve.

“As I speak to you, our members have been earning the same salary since 2009 till date. I don’t think there is any section of the Nigerian economy and society that has been so treated.

“The highest-paid professor which means that if he remains in the university system for the next 10-15 years will not earn more than the same amount he’s been earning since 2009.”

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