What We Know About The Alleged 103 Endsars Recovered Bodies – Lagos Govt

On Sunday, a letter purportedly from the Lagos State Government Public Procurement Agency circulated on the internet, causing significant confusion and concern among the public.

The letter, titled “Letter of No Objection – Mass Burial for the 103, the Year 2020 ENDSARS victims,” revealed that the state government had engaged the services of a private firm, Messrs Tos Funeral Ltd, at the cost of N61,285,000 to bury 103 bodies tagged as “Endsars victims.”

The news quickly sparked speculation that the bodies scheduled for mass burial were those of protesters killed by the Nigerian Army at the Lekki Tollgate on October 20, 2020, during the #EndSARS protest against police brutality.

However, hours later, the Lagos State Government, through its Ministry of Health, issued a statement to debunk what it described as misinformation aimed at “stirring public disaffection against the Lagos State government.”

According to the statement released by the ministry’s permanent secretary, Olusegun Ogboye, none of the 103 bodies scheduled for mass burial originated from the Lekki tollgate area of the state. Instead, the bodies were identified as those recovered from various incidents across the state, including “EndSARS violence and community clashes” that occurred in areas such as Fagba, Ketu, Ikorodu, Orile, Ajegunle, Abule-Egba, Ikeja, Ojota, Ekoro, Ogba, Isolo, and Ajah.

The state government clarified that the decision to approve the mass burial of the 103 unclaimed bodies was made three years after the incident in an effort to decongest the morgue.

In the aftermath of the #EndSARS violence, the office of the Chief Coroner had issued public adverts and announcements in national newspapers, urging individuals who had lost loved ones or had relatives declared missing between October 19 and October 27, 2020, to visit the Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) to identify the bodies.

The government’s statement also emphasized that during the judicial panel of inquiry, the chief pathologist of the state, John Obafunwa, was summoned to testify and produce records of the recovered bodies. The subsequent report and white paper did not attribute the deaths of any named citizens to the Lekki incident.

The Lagos State Government reiterated that the bodies approved for mass burial were not related to the Lekki Tollgate incident and sought to set the record straight on the matter.

Despite the state government’s clarification, the controversy surrounding the ENDSARS victims’ mass burial had already caused significant concern and unrest among the public.(CONTINUE READING HERE)