The Lekki Tollgate victims had already spent three days in the morgue, before they were brought before the Pathologist for an autopsy.
The Nigerian Army and the Lagos State Government connived and secretly took 20 bodies from the Lekki Tollgate to the state pathologist for autopsies after the October 20, 2020 shootings, SaharaReporters has learnt.
SaharaReporters gathered from a top source that the Lagos State Pathologist, Prof John Obafunwa, made this revelation secretly to members of the Lagos State EndSARS panel sitting in Lekki.
The source who is also privy to happenings at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, added that the bodies of the Lekki Tollgate victims had already spent three days in the morgue, before they were brought before the Pathologist for an autopsy.
"The pathologist in Lagos has secretly revealed that the Nigerian Army and the Lagos state government brought 20 Lekki massacre victims on October 24, to him but they claimed they were people trying to break out of Ikoyi prisons.
"Interestingly, the bodies had been in the morgue for three days before they were taken to the pathologist. This is in addition to the 99 bodies which they confessed were taken to the pathologist earlier, saying three were from Lekki Tollgate," the source stated. [story_link align="left"]86373[/story_link]
On June 5, Obafunwa, the consultant pathologist to the Lagos State government, had first revealed that a total of 99 bodies were deposited in the mortuary of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital between October 20 and 24 last year. But that he was told only three of them came from Lekki.
In October 2020, Nigerians across the country had stormed the streets to demonstrate against police brutality and bad governance under the #EndSARS campaign.
However, on October 20, soldiers from the Bonny Camp, 81 division, invaded the Lekki tollgate, where some demonstrators had gathered, and fired gunshots.[story_link align="left"]85995[/story_link]
There has been controversy surrounding the casualty figures since the incident occurred.
Speaking at the hearing of the judicial panel established to investigate the invasion by soldiers against protesters, Obafunwa had said 99 bodies were received for autopsy between October 20 and 24.
Obafunwa said apart from the three bodies said to have come from Lekki, the remaining ones were received from other parts of the state, including Surulere, Ikorodu, Ajah, and Fagba.
“They instructed us to conduct autopsies on bodies that came in between the 20th to 21st and up to about the 24th and we did the autopsies on the bodies, not just Lekki but cases from Ajah, Surulere, Ikorodu, Fagba, Ikoyi prisons and all those things amounting to a total of 99. But I am only here with the three for Lekki,” he had said.
On the precise date and time when the bodies were received, the pathologist said he would have to confirm from his records.
“I wouldn’t know how many bodies came on the 21st. I would have to go and check them. But I can tell you that it was between the 20th and 24th that we had to do all the cases,” he had noted.
Afterwards, Obafunwa had also explained the findings of the autopsy for each body.
According to him, the first person was brought in from Lekki bridge, and was discovered to have suffered laceration on a side of his skull, but died as a result of bleeding on his “chest cavity and “blunt force trauma to the chest”.
Obafunwa explained that the second male was declared dead in the early hours of October 21, after suffering an open skull fracture, but the pathologist added that there was no sign of gunshot injury.
He said the second body showed signs of having suffered hypertension, as well as rib fracture, but noted that the cause of death was “skull and brain injury which was due to blunt force trauma”.
For the third body, the pathologist said examination revealed that the person died of severe blood loss as a result of complications suffered, following a gunshot injury.
After giving his testimony, Obafunwa was asked to appear again before the panel on June 19 with reports on the 96 remaining bodies.