#EndSARS: Families of missing persons to take possession of relations’ bodies

After days of combing various hospitals in search of missing relatives, the Lagos State Government may begin to release corpses of victims in various mortuaries in the state from this week, Daily Trust learnt.

This is just as the state government clarified that the bodies were not of the victims of the alleged Lekki shooting which is still a subject of controversy, denials and counter denials.

The release of the corpses is however subject to the completion of verification process by families of the victims.

Daily Trust learnt that some of the families who visited the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) last week in response to the Chief Coroner’s call for the identification of bodies of missing persons between 19th and 27th October 2020 may begin to get bodies of their dead relatives for burial.

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The families had besieged LASUTH last week following the call by the state Chief Coroner, Hon. Justice M. A Dada for the identification of missing persons between 19-27th October, 2020.

The families stormed the Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) at Ikeja in desperate search for their missing relations.

However, the families were disappointed to be told that the corpses are not in LASUTH but at the Lagos Mainland Hospital, Yaba.

The next-of-kin, who have been verified having supplied the necessary details would begin to take possession of the bodies of their missing relations who are majorly victims of the recent #EndSARS protests in the state.

However, amidst the controversy over the alleged killings at Lekki on October 20, 2020, the state government insisted that the call for identification of missing persons was a routine exercise and not about #EndSARS or the alleged Lekki shooting by the Nigerian Army.

Meanwhile, the State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso clarified that the identification of bodies as announced by the Chief Coroner has nothing to do with Lekki shooting.

According to Omotoso, there were killings in some parts of the Lagos prior to the Lekki toll gate incident.

“There was anarchy. So the bodies that were picked up at the scene of all of the killings are the ones that the coroner is asking Lagos residents to come and identify,” he explained, emphasizing that there is no attempt to cover up regarding the lekki shooting.