Lai Mohammed Insists No Lekki Toll Gate Massacre Occurred, Says “Five Years On, No Family Has Reported a Missing Child”
Former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has once again dismissed reports of a massacre at the Lekki Toll Gate during the October 2020 EndSARS protests, describing the claims as “fake news.”
Speaking during an interview with Arise TV, Mohammed reiterated his long-held stance that no mass killing took place at the toll gate on the night of October 20, 2020.
“Yes, people died in many places during EndSARS, but saying there was a massacre at the toll gate is fake news,” he said.
Mohammed also criticized international media outlets, particularly CNN, accusing them of publishing “second-hand information” about alleged deaths at the toll gate despite not being physically present.
“It has been five years, and nobody has come to tell us their child went to the toll gate and didn’t return,” he added, insisting that no family had stepped forward to confirm any casualty connected to the toll gate.
The former minister maintained that widely circulated accounts of a mass killing were unfounded and exaggerated.
The EndSARS protests, which swept across Nigeria in October 2020, were driven by public anger over police brutality, especially abuses linked to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). Demonstrations erupted nationwide—in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and other major cities—leading to clashes between protesters and security forces, vandalism, and heightened calls for police reform.
While acknowledging that several violent incidents occurred across the country during the protests, Mohammed insisted that the allegations of a Lekki Toll Gate massacre remain “misleading and unsupported by evidence.”