Lagos authorities on Wednesday appealed to residents to come forward and identify unknown bodies abandoned at the mortuary. 

A public notice that appeared in the newspapers urged families whose loved ones went missing between October 19 and 27 to visit the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Ikeja for identification exercise.

The announcement was made by Lagos chief coroner Justice Mojisola Dada and was published in newspapers. Screenshots of the public notice have set social media alight overnight, raising suspicion that the bodies might include those killed in the October 20 military attack on protesters in Lekki.

The announcement came as outrage and investigation intensified over the Nigerian Army’s role in the attack, which effectively quelled the historic #EndSARS protests. 

Peoples Gazette reported on the night of the military shooting that a major was leading an attempt to hand over nine bodies to the police in Lagos, which the police rejected and advised the military officers to take the bodies to the mortuary by themselves.

Ms. Dada did not mention how many bodies were still at the mortuary in her announcement. A spokesman for her office did not immediately return a request seeking comments from the Gazette Thursday morning.