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July 23, 2023
The Lagos State Government says the 103 casualties of #EndSARS that it plans to conduct a mass burial for are not victims of the Lekki toll gate shooting.
According to a statement issued on Sunday by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Dr Olusegun Ogboye, the casualties are from across the state.
SaharaReporters earlier reported that a letter from the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency confirmed a move by the state government to carry out a mass burial for 103 victims of #EndSARS close to three years after their deaths.
The letter dated July 19, 2023, and titled ‘Letter Of No Objection. Mass Burial For The 103. The Year 2020 EndSARS Victims’ was addressed to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health and signed by the Director General of the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency, Mr. Onafowote Fatai Idowu.
The details of the killings that occurred during the 2020 #EndSARS protests in Lagos have been a subject of controversy, particularly the incident of October 20, 2020, at the Lekki toll gate where soldiers and the police killed an unspecified number of peaceful protesters.
Meanwhile, the letter confirms the award of N61,285,000.00 (Sixty-One Million, Two Hundred and Eighty-Five Thousand Naira) contract to TOS Funerals Limited for the mass burial for the 103 victims of #EndSARS protests. However, the letter did not state the number of people killed in Lekki or in any part of the state.
Meanwhile, in the statement, Ogboye said, “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.”
The statement further read, “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.”
Ogboye continued, “In the aftermath of the #EndSARS violence, the office of the Chief Coroner invited members of the public through public adverts and announcements 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."