An EndSARS victims lawyer, Dele Farotimi, has berated the Lagos State government for saying that out of the 103 victims of the protest who are set for mass burial, no body was retrieved from Lekki Toll-Gate.
EndSARS protest, which was peaceful in Lagos, turned bloody on October 20, 2020, when some military officers allegedly fired bullets at peaceful protesters singing Nigeria’s national anthem at Lekki Toll-Gate.
Several people reportedly loss their lives, while others sustained degrees of injuries.
According to a leaked memo dated July 19, 2023, by the public procurement agency, which has been trending online, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has approved for mass burial of 103 bodies, which were identified to be victims of the protest.
The memo also revealed that the state government engaged the service of Messrs Tos Funeral Ltd, a private firm, at the cost of N61,285,000 to bury the bodies of the victims.
“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 partly.
However, the state government in a statement issued by Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr Olusegun Ogboye, and made available to THE WHISTLER on Sunday, said the said 103 casualties mentioned in the letter were bodies picked up from different locations in the state, but none was retrieved from Lekki Toll-Gate.
But reacting to the statement on Monday, during an interview on Arise TV, Farotimi said that contrary the claim by Lagos state government, the report of a judiciary panel it set up, indicated that there was a massacre at the Lekki Toll-Gate.
He explained that he saw victims with bullet wounds first hand, in conjunction with other people and listened to their stories.
“The thing about the truth is that it requires no embellishments. And the unfortunate thing or maybe the fortunate thing about lies is that they’re always shortlived,” Farotimi said.
“The report of the panel, which is different from the white paper, was emphatic in concluding that there was a massacre at Lekki Toll-Gate. We’re not dealing with paucity of evidence; we’re dealing with the readiness of human beings to collaborate with evil, to acculturate evil.”
“I saw victims, people with bullet wounds. I, in conjunction with many others dealt (related) with victims.”
He argued that if none of the 103 victims was picked from Lekki Toll-Gate as the government is claiming, where then were they picked up.
“Let’s deal with the fact as we know them right now. The panel was emphatic – there was a massacre. That one, let them stop all that gaslighting and obfuscating. So if you say these 103 people were not the ones that were picked up from the Toll-Gate, if human lives truly matters in our country, where were these ones picked up? Exactly where? The entire purpose of the coroner’s law is so that you’ve accountability even for the dead,” he noted.
Farotimi also criticized the state government for voting over N61 million for the burial of the 103 victims.
“Beyond the inanity that they’ll prefer that we focus on, it’s critical that we look even at the document itself. You want to bury a hundred and three human beings whose humanity you’ve denied, who are not in anyway, shape or form acknowledged as beings, but you’ve voted N61 million. So on each one of them, you’re telling us you want to bury each one of them for N500,000. Even in burying the evidence of your complicities you’ve to inflate the cost of their burial,” he bemoaned.
