Citizens stoking EndSARS mass burial debate ‘mischievous’ – Lagos Govt.
The Lagos state government says citizens accusing it of denying the several killings of citizens protesting police brutality during the October 2020 EndSARS protests are “mischievous and unscrupulous” elements.
A government statement issued Sunday night by Olusegun Ogboye, the permanent secretary, Ministry of Health, said health officials had picked the 103 corpses being prepared for mass graves at different locations across the state. The government debunked the insinuation they were victims of law enforcements’ shooting at the Admiralty Toll Plaza, Lekki.
“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. 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.
“In the aftermath of the #EndSARS violence, the office of the Chief Coroner invited members of the public Throughout public adverts and announcement 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.”
The statement added the government only recently decided to rid the morgues of the unclaimed corpses.
“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,” Ogboye stated.
