…Civil society leaders demand immediate independent probe, action
…To announce memorial committee for #EndSARS victims in August
The United Action Front of Civil Society considers the leak of the mass burial of 103 #EndSARS victims by the Lagos State Government as a confirmation of the reckless killings of unarmed civilian protesters and citizens at the Lekki Tollgate and various locations in Nigeria in October 2020. The latest revelation, coming almost three years after the ugly incident which drew condemnations across the globe, speaks copiously to the repression and lack of transparency that characterised governance under the prevailing system in Nigeria. This expose underpins the grand conspiracy between security agencies, especially the military and Lagos State Government in an attempt to cover up the impunity perpetrated against Nigerian Citizens at the lekki Tollgate and across other locations listed in the media response of Lagos State Government.
The leadership of the United Action Front of Civil Society condemns the recklessness and cold-hearted disposition of the Lagos State Government for putting up a brazen denial, for close to three years, in the face of overwhelming disclosures and evidences from local and international media. It is instructive that while Lagos State Government has laboriously denied the killings of protesters at Lekki Toll Gate, which was invaded by the military, the atrocities perpetrated in other recently listed locations by government were also concealed. Governor Sanwo-Olu and agents of his government have all along been evasive on the reported killings in Alausa, the seat of power and other locations in the Lagos metropolis, until the mass burial of the victims were leaked to the public last week.
Nigerians and global stakeholders are no doubt shocked by the revelations in the leaked official correspondence between the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency and Lagos State Ministry of Health, which clearly exposed the perfidy of supposed leaders of our society, who ought to be accountable to the people. The leaked letter wherein the secret mass burial for the 103 victims of the year 2020 EndSARS civil protest were inadvertently exposed, has finally confirmed the evil perpetrated by the State against unarmed civilians protesting police brutality across Nigeria.
It is also recalled that in the wake of the public enquiry set up by Governor Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, attempts were made by both military authority and the government to divert attention from the widely reported massacre of defenceless citizens in Lekki. However, while the invasion of Lekki Toll Gate and other protest centres in the Lagos on the eve of October 20, 2020 has never been in doubt, it is evident that the Lagos State Government did all within its powers to conceal mass killings of civilians that took place within its jurisdiction, It could also be recalled that former President Muhammadu Buhari on a national television chat also alleged that the EndSARS protest was an attempt to forcibly remove him from office ostensibly justifying the reckless and brutal manner the peaceful civilian protest was quelled having been perceived as insurrection against government.
The leadership of the United Action Front of Civil Society therefore demand a fully independent public probe of the killings of October 20, 2020 in Lagos to properly unearth the dept of the atrocities committed against defenceless citizens as well as the key dramatis personae involved in this crime against humanity, especially in the interest of justice and for the sake of posterity as we of the organised civil society of Nigeria maintain that this gruesome mass killings violated the fundamental human rights of the victims as recognised by the Nigerian Constitution and as provided for in regional and international statues.
It is the considered view of the United Action Front of Civil Society that the mass killings and the denial by both Lagos State Government and the then President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, who only could have been in a position to exercise the power of drafting the military to quell any mass action offends the spirit and letters of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which embody global accepted standard for the respect to life and dignity of the human person. Not only were the 103 victims of #EndSARS protests were unjustly murdered, they have been denied their human dignity through denial and non-disclosure of the cause of their deaths as well the clandestine arrangement to dumb their bodies.
The United Action Front of Civil Society therefore calls on the global community to hold the Lagos State Government, the Federal Government of Nigeria as well as the Nigerian military accountable for the callous mass murder, irresponsible denial of their probable atrocities as well the concealment of the identities of the victims of #EndSARS protests. To this end, the United Action Front of Civil Society hereby reterate our demand for an independent probe by eminent Nigerian of high integrity and Civil Society leaders with full observer status granted to representatives of the United Nations, its relevant institutions in Nigeria as well local and international media and interested global groups and individuals.
Finally, the organised Civil Society of Nigeria shall be setting up an inclusive memorial committee to commemorate the heinous murder of the 103 Victims of the #EndSars Massacre by the Nigerian State in immortalising the struggle for a Free and Better Nigeria, while also honouring those maimed and wounded during the #EndSars Citizens’ Mass Protest in Nigeria. The composition of this high-powered committee shall be announced sometimes in August 2023 after due consultations with stakeholders and families of the victims of the #EndSars Citizens Action of October 2020 in Nigeria.
