Former Minister of Information Lai Mohammed has restated his position on the Lekki Toll Gate incident, saying that five years after the #EndSARS protests no family has come forward to report a missing relative linked to the scene.
Mohammed spoke during an interview on Arise News. The video was shared on the station’s official X page. He explained that while the nationwide protests recorded deaths in several parts of the country, the claim of a mass killing at the toll gate had not been proven.
According to him, the debate was never about whether people died during the protests but about the accuracy of reports that described the toll gate incident as a massacre.
He said, “Nobody ever said nobody died during End SARS. No. People died even in Abuja, they died in Lagos, they died in Kano.”
He argued that his concern was how some outlets, especially CNN, compiled their reports.
“CNN was not at the toll gate… CNN relied on second and third hand information as if they were there,” he said.
He used an analogy to support his position, saying, “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 my son or my ward went to the toll gate and didn’t come back.”
Mohammed added that the protests were tense and led to losses across several areas, including Alimosho. He claimed that 37 police officers and six soldiers were killed in the unrest.
He said the government had not changed its stance and maintained that claims of a massacre at the Lekki Toll Gate remained unproven.
According to him, “#EndSARS was unfortunate, it was tragic, but that there was a massacre at the toll gate is fake news.”
