The governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has approved the mass burial of at least 103 protestors who were slain by combined Nigerian Army and police forces during the #EndSARS major demonstration against police brutality in October 2020.

The state government hired Messrs Tos Funeral Ltd, a private business, to bury 103 remains identified as victims of the killings, according to a document reviewed by Peoples Gazette and dated July 19 by the public procurement office.

“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 (Sixty-one million, two hundred and eighty-five thousand Naira only) for the mass burial for the 103, the year 2020 Endsars victims,” the letter read.

This action comes nearly three years after Mr Sanwo-Olu and his government colleagues flatly denied the brutal killing of unarmed protesters waving the Nigerian flag and chanting the national anthem at the Lekki toll gate on the night of October 20, 2020.

When Mr Sanwo-Olu's press secretary, Gboyega Akosile, was asked how this latest step relates to the state government's previous denials, he chuckled and simply assured The Gazette that "the government will release its response soon."

The decision also comes after the Lagos state administration rejected a demand for the identification of missing persons owing to various instances of intimidation and harassment meted out to individuals who came before the panel of inquiry to make claims that implicated the government.

Mr Sanwo-Olu produced a white paper in which he reiterated his rejection of the conclusions of the Lagos State judicial panel of investigation, which called the occurrence a massacre. The court panel decided that nothing could justify the war-like brutality unleashed on nonviolent protestors, which resulted in the deaths of dozens.

While Mr Sanwo-Olu and his government continue to maintain their denial as the official version of events, a large amount of evidence and a number of government decisions, such as the appointment of former Army chief Turkur Buratai as a diplomatic envoy to the Benin Republic, which many believed was done to protect him from prosecution by the International Criminal Court, confirmed the incident and demonstrated that the government was aware that there was sufficient evidence to prosecute him.

The judicial panel agreed that the casualties of the incident were exacerbated since the army refused to allow ambulances and medical assistance to reach injured demonstrators in need.

The panel also stated that the army took the demonstrators' bodies and cleaned blood traces from the area in order to conceal proof of its crime and impede the panel's inquiry.

Professor John Obafunwa, chief pathologist at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), testified before the panel of inquiry that at least 99 bodies from the EndSars protests were deposited in morgues across Lagos, with several of them carrying bullet wounds, some blunt trauma, and some bruises. Three of the 99 bodies that were verified to be those of demonstrators were successfully tracked back to the toll gate.

SHOP

A video investigation published by CNN also complimented several videos that were taken during the incident and confirmed that the men of the Nigerian Army and police indeed shot directly at protesters using live bullets. Mr Sanwo-Olu has asked citizens to “snap out of the incident,” and build back better but families who lost their loved ones in the incident struggle to find closure in the face of the government’s suppression of the truth.