Nigerians reject Lagos Govt’s explanation on planned mass burial for 103 ‘EndSARS’ victims

Attempt by the Lagos Government to explain circumstances surrounding a leaked memo directing an agency to make preparation for a planned mass burial for 103 corpses identified as ‘EndSARS’ victims, have only incited more controversy as Nigerians bickered over the sincerity of the state.

A memo signed by the Director General of the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency, Mr Onafowote Fatai Idowu for the award of the contract TOS Funerals Limited had surfaced on the media space, detailing a planned burial arrangement for 103 corpses identified as ‘EndSARS’ victims.

The said letter dated July 19th, 2023 with reference number LA/PPA/NO ONJ/VOL22/213, confirmed that the Mass Burial was planned for 103 victims of 2020 EndSARS protests in Lagos.

According to a letter, the state government engaged the service of Messrs Tos Funeral Ltd, a private firm for the mass burial.

It stated that the state government engaged the firm at the cost of N61,285,000 to bury 103 bodies that were identified to be victims of the killings.

Amid speculations and suspicions dominating the social media space, the Lagos Government finally opened up with an explanation, late Sunday, as it claimed that the 103 corpses were not from the Lekki Toll Gate, but from ‘recorded casualties in different areas of the State and NOT from the Lekki Toll Gate as being inferred in the mischievous publications.’

A statement credited to the Permanent Secretary, state Ministry of Health, Dr Olusegun Ogboye, late Sunday, described the news reports on the memo as ‘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.’

“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, nobody 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,” the statement read in parts.

However, barely hours after the response, Nigerians questioned the veracity of the claims and defence put up by the state government in various responses captured via the Twitter.

While some who participated in the protests argued that the claims by the Lagos government of picking up bodies the day after the protest night at the Lekki Toll gate as ‘an amazing own goal,’ considering that that the day in question was peaceful and devoid of any violence.

However, others backed the state government, as they described the criticisms as they urged Nigerians not to let ‘anyone or group mislead (them) into inciting others needlessly.’

Following are some of the reactions on Twitter as captured by Oracle Today newspaper:

EndSARS protester and activist, Serah Ibrahim (@TheSerahIbrahim) wrote:

It’s been 22 hours and this was the best lie Lagos State was able to come up with and it’s an amazing own goal.

You picked up 103 bodies but not at the Lekki Toll Gate where senseless soldiers massacred peaceful #EndSARS youths.

This is the same lie Sanwo Olu told the panel and the lawyers embarrassed him with the truth when he could not prove it.

There was not a single reported case of clash anywhere in Lagos at that time.

This same lie Hakeem Muri-Okunola came to say in court and was embarrassed because he could not defend it. You think 2 and a half years down the line, we would forget.

You are jokers. 103 bodies and you picked them up from every other place apart from where you actually shot into a crowd.

The most amazing part of it, these liars sent Hakeem Muri Okunola to court and said the bodies were from Ikoyi Prison clash and guess what, they claimed the prisoners did not have names, that they did not know the names of the prisoners and there was no documentation of the prisoners to show their identity that’s why the morgues tagged them as EndSARS

A stupid lie.

Such a stupid own goal.

(@segalink) wrote:

The truth is out there.

The report of the thorough investigation of the Tribunal is still in the public domain.

Don’t let anyone or group mislead you into inciting others needlessly. The bodies in question were examined from the evidence of the Chief Pathologist as recovered from different parts of Lagos serially by the Panel with the cross-examination by counsel of the protesters.

Only two bodies were linked to the Lekki phase one area; one was involved in a head-on collision accident involving a bike that ran into a stationary vehicle, and the other involved blunt force trauma, with a huge speaker falling on the deceased.

EndSARS activist, Rinu Oduala (@SavvyRinu) wrote:

Families of #EndSARS victims killed by the police forces showed up btw, looking for the bodies of their loved ones, including Pelumi Onifade’s mother.

They were asked to drop DNA samples. They dropped.

Lagos State government never did any DNA test for the samples collected.

It would be recalled that scores of persons were allegedly killed especially at the Lekki Toll Gate, in Lagos during a mass rally organised by mostly youths protesting the brutality, extra-judicial killings carried out by operatives of the now disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria police in October 10, 2020.

Fallout of that clash between soldiers, police on protesters was the constitution of a nationwide panel of enquiry commissioned to investigate the incident which also triggered mass violence across parts of rhe country, with a view to compensating all parties that suffered losses.

In Lagos, the panel indicted the military and police for the killing of unarmed protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate, as the argument hovered over who ordered the military intervention, amid reports that the latter had specific orders to evacuate dead bodies from the scene of the incident.

This is further as the Lagos Government of Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu continued to deny casualty figures from the disturbing incident at the bridge till date, with government supporters accusing surviving protesters of lying against authorities over ‘false killings.’ However, autopsies conducted on at least 99 bodies recovered from various parts of Lagos State during the many days of protests, showed that only three bodies were identified as victims of the Lekki Toll Gate shooting. And that only one from the toll gate died as a result of gunshot injury.

Meanwhile, a letter signed by the Director General of the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency, Mr Onafowote Fatai Idowu for the award of the contract TOS Funerals Limited, Saturday, surfaced on the social media space, detailing a planned burial arrangement for 103 corpses identified as ‘EndSARS’ victims.

While the state government is yet to issue an official on the funeral arrangement, the said letter dated July 19th, 2023 with reference number LA/PPA/NO ONJ/VOL22/213, confirmed that the Mass Burial was planned for 103 victims of 2020 EndSARS protests in Lagos.

According to a letter, the state government engaged the service of Messrs Tos Funeral Ltd, a private firm for the mass burial.

It stated that the state government engaged the firm at the cost of N61,285,000 to bury 103 bodies that were identified to be victims of the killings.