More than 100 people who died in Nigeria in 2020 protests against police brutality will soon be buried, authorities said, prompting allegations by activists on Monday of a cover-up and calls for a new inquiry.
At least 103 bodies were gathered from across the state after the protests and other clashes related to it, the top official at Lagos State’s ministry of health, Dr Olusegun Ogboye, said in a statement after local media reported a leaked memo about the planned burial.
Ogboye said the fatalities occurred during violence in many parts of the state and not at a protest site at the Lekki toll gate, where soldiers allegedly shot protesters.
The new information about the deaths shows authorities in the West African nation are still covering up the true casualty toll from the protest and are still protecting security personnel who killed protesters, Amnesty International’s Nigeria office said as it demanded a new probe into the killings.
Thousands across Nigeria marched in October 2020 to protest the activities of the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a unit accused of police brutality.
In Lagos where the protest, known as #EndSARS movement, was concentrated, security forces opened fired at the Lekki Toll Gate protest venue, prompting global condemnation and an investigation that later found that dozens were shot at despite denials from authorities.
Many Nigerians and some activists questioned the decision of the Lagos government not to announce the planned burial until after news of it broke, but authorities denied any cover-up.
The 2020 protest, involving mainly young people in Africa’s most populous country, lasted nearly two weeks, climaxing on Oct 20 when army soldiers arrived at the Lekki toll gate protest site and opened fire on youths armed only with the Nigerian flag as they sang the national anthem.