EndSARS: N61m mass burial cost based on market value – Sanwo-Olu
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, through his press secretary Gboyega Akosile, has defended the huge cost his government intends to spend on burying 103 unclaimed corpses of EndSARS protesters.
The reaction came after a lawyer, Adesina Ogunlana, queried the government’s decision to spend N61million on burying the “unidentified” and “degraded bodies that died about two years ago.”
Ogunlana, who represented some of the victims of the nationwide protest against police brutality, believes the cost “should not even be up to N1m.”
“Is it not just digging a big grave and putting the bodies there? That shows you the exploitation of the ruling class that we have,” he said.
Defending the whopping burial cost in a media enquiry from Punch, Governor Sanwo-Olu’s aide Akosile said Ogunlana is a novice and he would rather the lawyer did not speak on the matter. Akosile opines that digging mass graves requires financial wizardry, which he believes Ogunlana lacks.
“Things are based on market value,” Akosile said.
“Does he (Ogunlana) have the contractual agreement between the contractors and the Lagos government?
“Does he know the nitty-gritty? If you do not have the XYZ of a contract, you cannot determine if money earmarked is too high or too low, otherwise everything you’re saying will just amount to wanting to talk,” he said.
