A former Minister of Information and Culture under the ex-President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Lai Mohammed, has reiterated that claims of a “massacre” at the Lekki Toll Gate during the October 2020 EndSARS protests were unfounded, describing the reports as misinformation amplified by social media.

Speaking on ARISE News on Wednesday while discussing his new book, Headlines and Soundbites: Media Moments That Defined an Administration, Mohammed said one of the greatest challenges of his tenure was addressing false narratives during the EndSARS unrest.

“EndSARS was unfortunate, it was tragic, but there was a massacre at the tollgate is fake news,” he said.

He argued that in the five years since the incident, no family has reported a missing relative linked to the protest at the toll gate. Using an analogy, Mohammed said, “If a man has a goat and the goat does not come home one night, he will go out and look for that goat. Now, five years on, nobody has come to tell us that my son or my ward went to the tollgate and didn’t come back.”

Mohammed also defended his criticism of CNN’s reporting, claiming the network relied on “second-hand information” rather than firsthand accounts.
“Nobody ever said nobody died during EndSARS. People died even in Abuja, Lagos, Kano. But CNN was not at the tollgate. CNN relied on second-hand thought and information,” he said.

He further defended the Buhari administration’s suspension of Twitter in 2021, describing it as a necessary measure to curb the spread of harmful content, and stressed that unregulated social media was viewed as a serious national concern.

The Lekki Toll Gate incident on October 20, 2020, remains a contentious episode of the nationwide protests against police brutality, with conflicting investigations and global scrutiny over security forces’ actions and government accountability.

Recall that in July 2025, the Federal High Court in Lagos ordered the Nigeria Police Force to pay N10 million in damages to a group of #EndSARS protesters for violating their fundamental rights.

Delivering the ruling on Thursday, Justice Musa Kakaki held that the police breached the constitutional rights of demonstrators who gathered at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2024, to mark the fourth anniversary of the #EndSARS protests.

The case arose after at least 20 protesters were arrested by the Lagos State Police Command and detained in a police van for several hours before being released without charge. The applicants sought legal redress, citing unlawful arrest and violations of their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

The suit was filed as a fundamental rights enforcement action by 22 individuals alongside three civic organisations — Education Rights Campaign, Take It Back Movement, and the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights. Among the protesters named as applicants were Hassan Taiwo Soweto, Uadiale Kingsley, Ilesanmi Kehinde, Osopale Adeseye, Olamilekan Sanusi, Osugba Blessing, Kayode Agbaje, Michael Adedeji, Jennifer Rita Obiora, Orunsola Oluremi, Seyi Akinde, Akin Okunowon, Ugochukwu Prince, Aisha Omolara, Thomas Abiodun Olamide, Ogbu Obinna Ferdinald, Aghedo Kehinde Stephen, Duroonike Olawale, Isaac Obasi, Funmilayo Jolade Ajayi, and Afeez Suleiman.

The respondents in the case included the Inspector-General of Police, the Nigeria Police Force, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, the chairman of the Lagos State Task Force, the Governor of Lagos State, and the Attorney-General of Lagos State.