After three years, EndSARS that ended three years with horrific stories of carnage and loss of properties worth billions of Naira still stokes controversy and remains a guarded secret of both Federal and Lagos governments.
Social media have been awash Sunday, July 23 that Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has approved the mass burial of at least 103 protesters who were massacred by joint forces of the Nigerian Army and the police during the October 2020 mass protest against police brutality tagged “EndSars.”
The media reported that a letter from the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency has 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.
Also read: Order Police to Release Corpses to Relatives for Burial – EndSARS Panel urges govts
The letter dated July 19, 2023, and entitled ‘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 (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.
The letter reads, “We refer to your letter dated 13 July, 2023 with Ref No: LSMH/G/NS/013-1/23 in respect of the above subject matter.
“Following our review of your letter and the documents attached, we note the following I. Mr. Governor’s Approval II. Minutes of Ministerial Tenders Board III. Meeting Procurement Planning Committee IV. Sign-off
“Following review of your request and based on the information provided therein, the Agency has “No Objection” to the award of contract to MESSRS. TOS FUNERALS LIMITED at a total cost of N61,285,000.00 (Sixty-One Million, Two Hundred and Eighty-Five Thousand Naira) only for the mass burial for the 103, the year 2020 EndSARS victims.
“In view of the above, please note that I. Ensure a quadruplicate copy of the letter of award for MESSRS. TOS FUNERALS LIMITED registered with the PPA within 72 hours.
“II. Ensure the submission of Certificate of Suppliers Registration with PPA in Appropriate class.
“III. Ensure all statutory taxes and deductions are remitted by the supplier.
“IV. The letter of award is to be accompanied with a copy of this letter of “NO- Objection, Certificate of Registration / Renewal with PPA and receipt of payment of Admin fees (0.25%) to be paid before Release of Fund.
“Refer to Head of Service Circular with Reference No: CIR/II05/20/Vol.1/051 dated 15 May, 2020, it is mandated that the 0.25% Admin fee is paid to PPA and 0.5% agreement fee is paid to Ministry of Justice.
“Service providers should indicate in writing where there is the need for STO/MDA Finance and Accounts to deduct at source or payment directly by the Service Providers before the release of funds.
“Pursuant to Sections 18 (1) (b) and 18(1) (k) of the Lagos State Public Procurement Law 2021), your office is required to keep proper records of this project which shall be subject to Procurement Audit by the Agency after. Please be guided accordingly.”
Ezekwesili queries Sanwo-Olu
As a result of the story, former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, called on the Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to react to online reports claiming his government has approved the sum of N61 million for mass burial for 103 people k*lled during the EndSARS Protest in Lagos on October 20, 2020.
In a tweet shared on her handle this evening July 23, Ezekwesili asked the governor to react to the claim.
‘‘Mr Governor of @followlasg, @jidesanwoolu, here is a document that has gone viral on social media, stating that your government procured services for mass burial of 103 corpses killed during the #EndSARS protest?
Is this so?
Mr Governor actually knew the State had a record of 103 dead bodies from the #EndSARS shootings?
Lagos Government reacts
Reacting through a press statement on Sunday, the State governor described it as “mischief makers at work.”
The statement signed by Dr Olusegun Ogboye, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health reads in full:
‘‘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. 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, nobody 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.
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.’’
Background of Endsars
The Lekki shooting occurred around 7 p.m. on Tuesday, October 20, 2020 when soldiers opened fire on peaceful protesters at Lekki toll gate.
The #EndSARS protest was a peaceful campaign against extrajudicial killing and brutality by the police, and the disbandment of a special unit of the force called Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). The protests were also a campaign for the reform of the police, and they held many states across Nigeria for over two weeks.
The protesters had gone on for over a week before the incident at the Lekki toll gate, which was condemned locally and internationally.
The state government subsequently set up a panel to look into the incidents and make recommendations.
In July 2021, the Lagos Judicial Panel on Restitution for Victims of SARS and Other Related Abuses admitted in evidence post-mortem results and Compact Discs of 99 corpses deposited at the Lagos morgue between October 20 and 27, 2020.
A consultant pathologist to the Lagos State Government, Prof. John Obafunwa, who testified before the panel, tendered the results following an order made on June 5, 2021, for it to be produced.
The documents contained in two bags- blue and white- were submitted bybthe Chairman of the panel, Justice Doris Okuwobi after the counsel for some EndSars protesters, Yinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN) moved for the documents to be admitted.
The pathologist had testified that the coroner’s office conducted post-mortem autopsies on 99 bodies during the period, but said only three bodies were labelled as #EndSARS Lekki.
But in November 2021, the panel in its report said at least nine persons were confirmed dead at the Lekki toll plaza on the night of October 20, 2020 when soldiers stormed there to disperse the peaceful #EndSARS protesters there.
In its report submitted to the Lagos State Government titled, ‘Report of Lekki Incident Investigation Of 20th October 2020’, the panel said at least 48 protesters were either shot dead, injured with bullet wounds or assaulted by soldiers.
It noted that nine protesters were confirmed dead, while four were presumed dead. The panel listed 48 names as casualties of the incident among which 20 sustained gunshot injuries, while 13 were assaulted by the military.
Those killed were identified as Victor Sunday Ibanga, Abuta Solomon, Jide, Olalekan Abideen Ashafa, Olamilekan Ajasa, Kolade Salami, Folorunsho Olabisi, Kenechukwu Ugoh and Nathaniel Solomon while those presumed dead were listed as Abiodun Adesanya, Ifeanyi Nicholas Eji, Tola and Wisdom.
The 309-page report noted that the protesters were allegedly killed by policemen and soldiers.
“The atrocious maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters, while sitting on the floor and waving their Nigerian flags, while singing the National Anthem can be equated to a massacre in context.
“It was alleged and corroborated that the soldiers had their vans parked at the Lekki tollgate and removed as many bodies and corpses of the fallen protesters, which they took away with their vans,” the report read in part.
The report contradicts the consistent claim by the then-President Muhammadu Buhari-led government that there was no massacre at the toll gate and no bodies.
Subsequently, in November 2021, the Lagos State Government released a White Paper on the report by the EndSARS panel that probed the Lekki toll gate incident of October 20, 2020.
The Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration faulted the panel’s report that nine persons were killed by the police and soldiers at the toll gate.
In the White Paper, the government described the position of the panel that nine persons were shot dead as “assumptions and speculations.”
A human rights activist, and a member of EndSARS panel, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), said the government’s position in the White Paper was inconsistent with facts.
Adegboruwa in a document released in December 2021, titled “Comments On LASG White Papers On ENDSARS Panel Reports,” explained that the decisions of the Panel on Petitions were self-executory and not subject to review or rejection by the state government, affirming that this was the agreement and modality adopted from the day the panel was inaugurated.
Adegboruwa described the white paper as illegal, stressing that there was no provision for the issuance of a White Paper under the law setting up the Panel.
“There is no provision for the issuance of a White Paper under the law setting up the Panel. Under and by virtue of section 15 of the Tribunal of Inquiry Law, upon conclusion of any inquiry, the Governor is only empowered to issue directive for the enforcement of any decision emanating from the inquiry.
“The Governor cannot issue a White Paper to overrule the decisions of a Judicial Panel of Inquiry,” he said.
