Index to Nigerian Newspapers

Counsel for some #EndSARS protesters, Mr Adesina Ogunlana, has questioned the N61m budgeted by the Lagos State Government for the mass burial of 103 corpses recovered in the wake of the October 2020 #EndSARS protest.The state government had on Sunday confirmed the authenticity of a leaked letter indicating planned mass burial for 103 corpses. The letter, dated July 19 2023, The letter, signed by the Director-General of the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency, Mr Onafowote Idowu, But Ogunlana, who represented some#ENDSARS protesters who claimed to have either been shot or witnessed soldiers shooting protesters at the Lekki tollgate on October 20, 2020, expressed dismay at the sum budgeted to give mass burial to unclaimed bodies. The activist-lawyer said, “My concern is not about the people that died but the fact that somebody is saying he wants to carry out a mass burial with N61m – the mass burial of unidentified bodies, of degraded bodies that died about two years ago, roughly about 20 or 19 months ago. 

You want to use N61m for mass burial! It should not even be up to N1m. Is it not just digging a big grave and putting the bodies there? That shows you the exploitation of the ruling class that we have, who are telling the people to bear the pain and to bear with the government.”

A 45-year-old furniture maker, Ahmed Atolagbe, whose two sons were killed on July 22, 2023, when a portion of the fence of a hotel collapsed on their house in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State, is demanding justice for the deceased.

The Kwara State-born grieving father told PUNCH Metro on Thursday that tragedy struck when the fence of a hotel collapsed on his three-room apartment located on Alao Street, Olainukan Bus Stop, Isawo in Ikorodu during a downpour.

The father of six said his two sons, seven-year-old Abdulwahab and nine-year-old Roqeeb, who were sleeping around the dining section of his sitting room at the time of the collapse died on the spot.

He added that his first son was also injured while his wife, Omotola, lost consciousness following the impact of the tragedy that befell the family. 

He said, “I was already at my furniture workshop in Irawo when I received a distress call that I should return home to attend to a pressing issue.

“By the time I got home, I realised that the fence of a hotel beside my house had collapsed following the impact of the erosion coming from the hotel.

“The fence fell on my house, killing two of my sons. My eldest son was also injured. The incident was too much for my wife. She fainted and was rushed to the hospital.”