Former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has restated his long-held position that while lives were lost during the #EndSARS protests, no deaths occurred at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020.

Mohammed made the remarks on Tuesday while speaking as a guest on Politics Today, a current affairs programme on Channels Television.

According to the former minister, his stance has remained consistent since the protests, insisting that the Federal Government never denied that lives were lost during the nationwide protest.

“Five years later, my position has not changed. At no point did the government ever say that lives were not lost during #EndSARS. We lost several lives, including soldiers and policemen, but nobody was killed at the toll gate,” he said.

Mohammed explained that he was in constant communication with senior military officials as events unfolded, even before soldiers were deployed to Lagos.

He further argued that the absence of verifiable casualty claims from families supports his position.

“Even before the soldiers were drafted, I was in touch with the Chief of Defence Staff. I was in touch with the hierarchy of the military because we were monitoring these developments.

“It’s a very simple logic. Five years after, nobody has come out today to say, ‘My ward went to the toll gate, and he didn’t come back,’” Mohammed stated.

Questions Over Panel Findings

Mohammed also distanced himself from the conclusions reached by the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry, which investigated the Lekki Toll Gate incident and described it as a “massacre.”

“I am not part of the Lagos State Government. I did not know how the panel arrived at their conclusion. I was in the room when decisions were taken, and I knew that the soldiers went to the toll gates with blank bullets,” he said.

He maintained that the panel’s report contained “a lot of inconsistencies,” though he did not elaborate on specific aspects he disputed.

Troops Deployment

Asked whether the Federal Government regretted deploying troops to Lekki, an episode widely seen as a dark moment in the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, Mohammed defended the decision.

According to him, the decision to involve the military was justified under the circumstances.

“The #EndSARS started peacefully. At a point in time, it was hijacked by hoodlums. That was when the government said no, we have to send soldiers to stop this from getting out of hand.

“So the government took the right decision, because hoodlums had hijacked it at that time,” he said.

The Lekki Toll Gate incident remains one of the most controversial episodes of the October 2020 protests against police brutality, with sharply conflicting accounts from protesters, civil society groups, and government authorities.

Despite official denials of fatalities at the site, the events of that night continue to shape public discourse, legal actions, and annual memorials marking the anniversary of #EndSARS. (Channels TV)

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