Lekki Toll Gate massacre was fake news – Lai Mohammed

Former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has once again rejected claims that a massacre occurred at the Lekki Toll Gate during the October 2020 EndSARS protests, insisting that no evidence has emerged to support the widely circulated allegations.

Speaking in a recent interview with Arise TV, Mohammed described the reports as “fake news,” maintaining that international and local narratives about the incident were exaggerated and unsupported.

“Yes, people d+ed in many places during EndSARS,” he said, “but saying there was a massacre at the toll gate is fake news.”

Mohammed particularly criticized international media coverage, singling out CNN for what he called reliance on “second-hand information.” According to him, the outlet “relied on second-hand information that people died particularly in [the] toll gate when they were not even there.”

He also reiterated his long-standing argument that no families had come forward to report missing relatives linked specifically to the Lekki Toll Gate incident.

“It has been 5 years, and nobody has come to tell us their child went to the toll gate and didn’t return,” he stated, adding that the absence of such testimonies reinforced his position that the incident was misrepresented.

The EndSARS protests, which began in October 2020, were fueled by nationwide outrage over alleged police brutality, particularly involving the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). Demonstrations swept through major cities such as Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, leading to clashes between protesters and security forces, destruction of property, and intensified demands for systemic government reforms.

While acknowledging that violence occurred in several locations during the protests, Mohammed insisted that claims of a targeted massacre at the Lekki Toll Gate remained “misleading and unfounded.”

The former minister’s remarks revive one of the most contentious debates surrounding the EndSARS movement, as differing accounts of the toll gate incident continue to shape public discourse five years later.