Former Minister of Information Lai Mohammed has again insisted that no massacre occurred during the October 2020 EndSARS protest at the Lekki Tollgate, maintaining that soldiers deployed to the scene were issued only blank bullets.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, December 15, Mohammed defended the position of the former Muhammadu Buhari administration, saying while there were casualties during EndSARS, none qualified as a massacre at Lekki.
“Our position on EndSARS was very clear. At no point did the Federal Government say there were no casualties during EndSARS; there were casualties,” he said.
“We reported them, we admitted them. Thirty-seven policemen lost their lives. Six soldiers lost their lives during EndSARS,” he stated.
Mohammed said deaths were recorded in various parts of the country but not at the tollgate.
“Nobody speaks about this, but we admitted it. We give the numbers that lost their lives in Kano, in Abuja, everywhere, but what we said and what we still insist on, that there were no massacres at the Lekki tollgate,” he stated.
He sharply criticised international coverage of the event, particularly CNN, saying, “The CNN was not at the Lekki tollgate. CNN relied on poorly sourced stories to write its story.”
Reiterating his long-held stance, the former minister said, “This is the only massacre in the whole of the world where there are no bodies… I challenge anybody to come and tell me today that ‘my son or my daughter was at the tollgate, he didn’t come back home.’”
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On the use of force by the military that night, Mohammed disclosed, “Soldiers were issued blank bullets when they went to the Lekki tollgate. The whole idea is to disable you… I’m not a ballistic forensic expert, but as of today, there was no massacre at the Lekki tollgate.”
He explained that he studied the Lagos State government’s report on the incident and held a press conference to present the government’s side of the story.
“Not only did I read it, I also studied it, and I came back immediately when I came back from France, and I had a world press conference in which I dissected and said, ‘No. This is what really transpired.’”
Mohammed said he was in constant contact with top security officials during the protests.
“I was continually, continuously in touch with the Chief of Army Staff and the Chief of Defence Staff all throughout those operations,” he said, addding that, “I know for a fact that soldiers were issued blank bullets when they went to the Lekki tollgate.”
Insisting that misinformation fuelled much of the outrage, he said, “There was a lot of fake news, a lot of misinformation, but really the truth of the matter, and I stand by it to this day… It’s not popular because everybody wants to believe that people were massacred.”
Reflecting on the period, Mohammed also defended the Buhari government’s 2021 suspension of Twitter, now X, claiming it had become “a platform of choice for anybody who wanted to destabilise the country.”
The EndSARS movement, which began as a youth-led protest against police brutality, drew global attention when military officers allegedly opened fire on demonstrators at Lekki on October 20, 2020, an event that remains one of Nigeria’s most polarising episodes five years later.