In a shocking development, the Lagos State Government has come forward to admit that 103 victims of the #ENDSARS protest will be laid to rest in a mass burial.
The revelation, which was exposed in a leaked memo, comes three years after both the state and federal governments vehemently denied loss of lives during the October 20, 2022 #ENDSARS protests, which were sparked by nationwide outrage against police brutality.
The #ENDSARS protests in Lagos, like in many other parts of Nigeria, saw thousands of youths take to the streets to demand an end to police brutality and the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a controversial police unit notorious for human rights abuses.
The largely peaceful protests took a tragic turn on October 20, 2022, when a violent crackdown by security forces resulted in the loss of several lives and injuries to many others.
Following outrage over the development, Dr. Olusegun Ogboye, Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Ministry of Health, issued a statement claiming that the dead bodies prepared for mass burial were not from the Lekki tollgate.
For years, the Lagos State Government, as well as the federal government, had consistently denied that many people were killed in the protests, despite heart-wrenching accounts from some witnesses and victims’ families.
The refusal to acknowledge the lives lost during the demonstrations sparked anger and frustration among Nigerians, further straining the relationship between the citizens and the authorities.
The full statement reads:
RE: MASS BURIAL OF ENDSARS VICTIMS (MISCHIEF MAKERS AT WORK)
The attention of the Lagos State Government has been drawn to some social media publications about a purported mass burial plan for casualties of the 2020 #EndSARS incident. Peddlers of the news are deliberately misinterpreting and sensationalizing a letter from the Lagos State Government Public Procurement Agency titled: Letter of No Objection – Mass Burial for the 103, the Year 2020 ENDSARS victims, to misinform the public, stir public sentiment and cause public disaffection against the Lagos State Government.
While the Lagos State Government would not have dignified the mischievous elements peddling such news with a response, we consider it appropriate to set the records straight and draw the attention of well-meaning citizens to the antics of some unscrupulous elements who are hell bent on disrupting the peace and tranquility of Lagos with distorted news and half-truth about the PPA letter.
It is public knowledge that the year 2020 #EndSARS crisis that snowballed into violence in many parts of Lagos recorded casualties in different areas of the State and NOT from the Lekki Toll Gate as being inferred in the mischievous publications.
For the records, the Lagos State Environmental Health Unit (SEHMU) picked up bodies in the aftermath of #EndSARS violence and community clashes at Fagba, Ketu, Ikorodu, Orile, Ajegunle, Abule-Egba, Ikeja, Ojota, Ekoro, Ogba, Isolo and Ajah areas of Lagos State, including a jailbreak at Ikoyi Prison. The 103 casualties mentioned in the document were from these incidents and NOT from Lekki Toll-gate as being alleged. For the avoidance of doubt, no body was retrieved from the Lekki Toll Gate incident.
In the aftermath of the #EndSARS violence, the office of the Chief Coroner invited members of the public Throughout public adverts and announcement who had lost loved ones or whose relatives had been declared missing between 19th and 27th October 2020 from various clashes as mentioned above, to contact the department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) to help with identification of these casualties deposited in State-owned morgues. Relatives were to undergo DNA tests for identification purposes. It is important to state categorically that nobody responded to claim any of the bodies.
However, after almost three years, the bodies remain unclaimed, adding to the congestion of the morgues. This spurred the need to decongest the morgues – a procedure that follows very careful medical and legal guidelines in the event that a relative may still turn up to claim a lost relative years after the incident.
Decongestion of our public morgues is a periodic and regular exercise approved by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to free up space in mortuaries that have a large number of unclaimed bodies.