Lekki Toll Gate massacre was fake news – Lai Mohammed insists

A former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has again dismissed reports of a “massacre” at the Lekki Toll Gate during the October 2020 EndSARS protests, insisting the narrative was a product of fake news amplified by social media.

Mohammed stated this on Wednesday during an interview on ARISE News while discussing his new book, Headlines and Soundbites: Media Moments That Defined an Administration.

He described misinformation, particularly during the EndSARS protests, as one of the most challenging periods of his time in office.

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

The former minister said that in the five years since the incident, no family has officially reported a missing relative linked to the Lekki Toll Gate demonstration.

“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 today, nobody has come to tell us that my son or my ward went to the tollgate and didn’t come back,” he stated.

Mohammed also took aim at CNN’s coverage, insisting the network relied on “second-hand information,” and reaffirming the Buhari administration’s criticism of the report.

“Nobody ever said nobody died during EndSARS. People died even in Abuja, Lagos, and Kano. But what we were saying is that CNN was not at the tollgate. CNN relied on second-hand thought and information,” he said.

He further argued that unregulated social media had grown into a national threat and repeatedly fueled misinformation during his tenure.

“One of the jobs of a communicator, one of the biggest challenges, is how do you prevent fake news and misinformation from overshadowing the real facts?” Mohammed asked.

Defending the Federal Government’s 2021 suspension of Twitter, he described the action as a difficult but necessary measure to curb harmful online content.

The Lekki Toll Gate shooting occurred on October 20, 2020, when security operatives were accused of opening fire on peaceful protesters demanding an end to police brutality. The incident triggered national and international outrage, with conflicting reports on the number of casualties and debates over govern

ment accountability.