Nigeria’s Lagos state set to hold mass burials for anti-police protest victims

Authorities in Nigeria’s Lagos state were planning a mass burial for 103 people linked to anti-police protests more than two years ago, where demonstrators accused soldiers of killing protesters, a state health ministry official said on Sunday.

The number of victims of the October 2020 protests has been a source of dispute. The latest figure is much higher than previously reported.

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In December 2021, Lagos state rejected findings by a judicial panel that security forces carried out a “massacre” of unarmed protesters, maintaining only one person suffered a gunshot wound during the protests.

Protesters at a tollgate in the upmarket Lagos district of Lekki were shot at by men that witnesses said were soldiers. Rights group Amnesty International said 12 protesters were killed there. The army denied involvement.

On Sunday, local media published a leaked letter from Lagos public procurement agency informing a local funeral parlour to prepare for mass burials for “2020 ENDSARS victims.”

Olusegun Ogboye, permanent secretary for Lagos state health ministry confirmed the letter in a statement but denied reports the bodies were linked to the shooting at Lekki tollgate, which was occupied by protesters.

Ogboye said Lagos environmental health unit had picked bodies from at least 12 locations across the state “in the aftermath of EndSARS violence and community clashes.”

“The 103 casualties mentioned in the document were from these incidents and NOT from Lekki Toll-gate as being alleged,” said Ogboye.

He said the mass burials were meant to decongest mortuaries and that no relatives came forward to claim the bodies.

The demonstrations were held under the slogan “ENDSARS” to protest against a police unit which the demonstrators blamed for killings, torture and extortion. The unit was disbanded.

Police said 22 of their personnel were killed and 205 buildings including police stations were damaged in the unrest.

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