2yrs + 9 months after, Lagos government to conduct mass burial for 103 massacred EndSARS victims

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of Lagos State, has given his approval for the collective burial of at least 103 protestors who were killed by the Nigerian Army and police during the #EndSARS mass demonstration against police brutality in October 2020.

The state government employed the services of Messrs Tos Funeral Ltd, a private company, at a cost of N61,285,000 to bury 103 remains that were determined to be victims of the killings, according to a letter reviewed by Peoples Gazette and dated July 19 by the public procurement agency.

The agency “has “No Objection” to the award of contract to MESSRS TOS FUNERALS LIMITED at a total cost of N61,285,000 (Sixty-one million, two hundred and eighty thousand Naira only) for the mass burial of the 103, the year 2020 Endsars victims,” the letter stated.

This action was taken almost three years to the day after Mr. Sanwo-Olu and his government colleagues blatantly denied the brutal killing of unarmed protesters who were chanting the national anthem and waving the Nigerian flag at the Lekki toll gate on the night of October 20, 2020 when the military opened fire on them.

When asked how this new action compares to the state government’s earlier denials, Mr. Sanwo-Olu’s chief press secretary, Gboyega Akosile, smiled and simply informed Platinum Times Nigeria that “the government will release its response soon.”

The action was taken in response to reports of intimidation and harassment directed at people who appeared before the panel of inquiry to make allegations that indicted the government, as well as after the Lagos state government’s appeal for the identification of missing persons was ignored.

Mr. Sanwo-Olu had published a white paper to reaffirm his disagreement with the judicial panel of inquiry’s findings that the incident had been a massacre. Nothing, according to the court panel, could have justified the war-level violence used against nonviolent protesters, which resulted in scores of fatalities.

While Mr. Sanwo-Olu and his government continue to support their denial as the official account of events, a ton of evidence and a number of government decisions, including the choice of former Army chief Turkur Buratai to serve as a diplomatic envoy to the Benin Republic, which many believed was made to shield him from prosecution by the International Criminal Court, confirmed the incident and further showed that the government was aware there was enough evidence to support it.

The court panel affirmed that the army’s refusal to let ambulances and other medical assistance reach injured demonstrators who needed it aggravated the incident’s casualties. The panel also stated that the army seized the demonstrators’ bodies and removed blood stains from the area in order to cover up its crime and obstruct the panel’s investigation.

At least 99 bodies from the EndSars protests were deposited in morgues across Lagos, according to Professor John Obafunwa, chief pathologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), who testified before the panel of inquiry. Several of the bodies had bullet wounds, some had blunt trauma, and some had bruises. Three of the 99 bodies that were successfully identified as being those of demonstrators and carried in from the toll gate.

The Nigerian Army and policemen did, in fact, shoot live ammunition directly at the demonstrators, according to a CNN video investigation that praised many other recordings that were recorded during the incident. Mr. Sanwo-Olu has urged the populace to “snap out of the incident” and rebuild better, but in the face of the government’s repression of the truth, families of those who lost loved ones in the disaster find it difficult to find closure.