103 Lagos #endSARS victims for mass burial

Lagos State last week approved a huge budget for mass burial of 103 victims of the November 2020 nationwide #endSARS youth protests.

Nigerian youths took to the streets to protest police brutality in detention cells and constant extortion on highways. The demonstrations went wrong when soldiers were mobilized to disband the protesters in Lagos.

Last week Wednesday, 19 July, Lagos State government awarded a N61.2 million contract to an undertaker to bury the victims. A private firm, Messrs Tos Funeral Ltd, won the contract.

The state government had hitherto denied accusations that people were killed during the protests. However, those denials focused on exonerating Lekki Toll Gate as the scene of the extra-judicial killings.

The State Government subsequently set up a judicial panel on restitution for victims of SARS-related abuses and other matters to investigate what happened.

The panel report confirmed that a massacre indeed took place at Lekki Toll Gate on 20 October 2020. However, the State Government promptly denied this and hurriedly put a lid on the report.

Thus, last week’s planned mass burial contract raised questions again about the credibility of the State Government on the matter.

However, Permanents Secretary in the Ministry of Health,  Dr Olusegun Ogboye, continued the state government denials at the weekend. He said in a statement issued last night that none of the bodies for mass burial was recovered at the toll plaza.

“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. There was also 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,” he said.

Outraged citizens complained that there were no prior announcements for victims’ families to identify and claim remains of their relations.  

Ogboye however said government decided on a mass burial when relations of the victims came forward to claim the remains.

This, he said, followed an announcement by the Chief Coroner of the State.

Nobody responded to the call, he emphasized. “It is important to state categorically that nobody responded to claim any of the bodies.”

This claim however contradicts many news reports of families desperately looking for their loved ones at the time. Those who managed to locate their relations shot by police in other parts of Lagos found it difficult to reclaim the bodies.