The United Action Front of Civil Society has stated that it views the Lagos State Government’s disclosure of the planned mass burial of 103 #EndSARS victims as confirmation of the careless killing of unarmed civilian protesters and Nigerian citizens at the Lekki Tollgate and other locations in October 2020.
The group claimed that the most recent discovery, which comes nearly three years after the repulsive episode that brought global condemnations, “speaks copiously to the repression and lack of openness that typified government under the current system in Nigeria.”
This was said in a statement released by the United Action Front of Civil Society on Tuesday and signed by its head, Olawale Okunniyi (Veteran Che).
The group claims that the exposé supports a vast conspiracy involving security agencies, particularly the military, and the government of Lagos State in an effort to hide the impunity for crimes committed against Nigerian residents at the Lekki Tollgate and other locations.
The leadership of the United Action Front of Civil Society condemns the recklessness and heartlessness of the Lagos State Government for maintaining a brazen denial for nearly three years in the face of reams of information and proof from domestic and international media.
“It is interesting that the atrocities committed in other newly listed areas by the Lagos State Government were also covered up, notwithstanding the government’s laboriously denial of the demonstrators’ deaths at the Lekki Toll Gate, which was invaded by the military. Up until the mass burial of the victims was revealed to the public last week, Governor Sanwo-Olu and representatives of his government have been coy about the supposed killings in Alausa, the location of the seat of power, and other places in the Lagos metropolis.
“The revelations in the leaked official correspondence between the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency and the Lagos State Ministry of Health, which blatantly exposed the treachery of purported leaders of our society who should be answerable to the people, have undoubtedly shocked Nigerians and global stakeholders.
“The leaked letter, which accidentally revealed the 103 victims of the 2020 EndSARS civil protest’s secret mass burial, has finally established the atrocity committed by the State against unarmed individuals who were opposing police brutality across Nigeria.
“It should also be recalled that after Lagos State Governor Sanwo-Olu launched a public inquiry, the military and the administration both tried to deflect attention from the widely publicised slaughter of helpless residents in Lekki.
“However, while the assault of Lekki Toll Gate and other protest locations in Lagos on the eve of October 20, 2020, has never been in doubt, it is apparent that the Lagos State Government did everything in its power to hide mass killings of civilians that took place inside its jurisdiction, It may also be recalled that former President Muhammadu Buhari claimed during a national television interview that the EndSARS protest was an effort to forcibly remove him from office, ostensibly to justify the reckless and brutal way the peaceful civil disobedience was put down after it was interpreted as an uprising against the government.
“The leadership of the United Action Front of Civil Society, therefore, demands a fully independent public probe of the killings of October 20, 2020, in Lagos to properly uncover the depth 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 ki
The United Action Front of Civil Society is of the considered opinion that the mass killings and the denial by the Lagos State Government and the then President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, who only could have been in a position to use the power of drafting the military to quell any mass action, offend the spirit and letters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which embody the universally recognised standard for the respect to life and dignity. In addition to being unlawfully killed, the 103 protesters who died during the #EndSARS demonstrations also had their human dignity violated by the covert plan to dispose of their remains and the refusal to acknowledge the circumstances behind their deaths.
“Finally, the organised Civil Society of Nigeria shall establish an inclusive memorial committee to commemorate the heinous murder of the 103 victims of the #EndSARS massacre by the Nigerian state in order to immortalise the struggle for a free and better Nigeria and to pay tribute to those who were injured and maimed during the citizens’ mass #EndSARS protest in Nigeria.
After appropriate talks with stakeholders and the families of the victims of the #EndSARS Citizens Action that took place in Nigeria in October 2020, the organisation said, “The makeup of this high-powered committee shall be unveiled sometime in August 2023.”
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