Former Information Minister Lai Mohammed has maintained that no massacre took place at the Lekki tollgate during the #EndSARS protests. Mohammed was responding to CNN’s report on the October 20, 2020, incident, which claimed soldiers fired live bullets at protesters. The Nigerian Army has consistently denied using live ammunition, saying only blanks were fired to disperse crowds following a government-imposed curfew. At the time, Mohammed wrote to CNN’s VP of Communications, Jonathan Hawkins, criticizing the report for relying on “manipulated social media videos” and spreading what he called disinformation. In an interview on Arise Television’s ‘Prime Time’ on Wednesday, Mohammed acknowledged that deaths occurred during the protests in Lagos, Abuja, and Kano, but disputed CNN’s account of the Lekki tollgate, noting that the network was not on the scene and relied on second-hand information. “Nobody ever said nobody died during #EndSARS. People died even in Abuja. They died in Lagos. They died in Kano. But CNN was not at the tollgate. CNN relied on second-hand thought and information,” he said. He also questioned the “massacre” narrative, pointing out that five years after the event, no families have come forward claiming relatives went missing from the tollgate. “#EndSARS was tragic, but the story of a massacre at the tollgate is fake news,” he said. Mohammed further revealed that during the protests, his family held a meeting urging him to resign, citing online and offline harassment and threats to their businesses. He explained that he had to convince them that stepping down was not a simple choice, as he had information and insights they did not. “One of the toughest moments in my life was when my family asked me to resign. They were bullied online and offline, and their businesses were threatened. I had to explain that there are things I know, things I see, that they cannot see,” he said.
