There was no Lekki tollgate massacre during #EndSARS protest, Lai Mohammed insists

Lai Mohammed, ex-minister of information, has insisted thatthere was no massacre at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos during the #EndSARSprotests. In a report on the October 20, 2020 incident, CNN hadalleged that soldiers used live bullets on the protesters. However, the army had repeatedly denied deploying liveammunition, saying it fired blank bullets in a bid to disperse the protestersafter the government had announced a curfew. At the time, Mohammed, who was minister of information,wrote to Jonathan Hawkins, VP communications at CNN, to say the report “did notjust fall short of journalistic standards but reinforces the disinformationthat is going around on the issue”. He said CNN relied “heavily on manipulated social mediavideos”, adding that the “inciting report” was capable of setting the countryon fire. In an interview on Arise Television’s ‘Prime Time’ onWednesday, Mohammed said no one denied that fatalities occurred during theunrest, noting deaths in Abuja, Lagos, and Kano. However, the former information minister specificallychallenged CNN’s reporting on the tollgate incident, adding that the networkwas not at the scene and relied on second-hand information. “You mentioned the issue of CNN. And honestly, thatpushback, I still stand by it,” he said. “Nobody ever said nobody died during the #EndSARS. Peopledied even in Abuja. They died in Lagos. They died in Kano. But what we weresaying is that CNN was not at the tollgate. CNN relied on second-hand thoughtand information.” The former minister said five years after the incident, nofamilies have come forward to say loved ones went missing from the tollgate,labelling the “massacre” narrative as “fake news”. “If a man has a goat and the goat does not come home onenight, he will go out and look for that goat. Now, five years on today, nobodyhas come to tell us that my son or my ward went to the tollgate and didn’t comeback,” Mohammed added. “#EndSARS was unfortunate, it was tragic, but that there wasa massacre at the tollgate is fake news.” Mohammed shared that during the protest, his family conveneda meeting urging him to resign. He said his family faced intense online and offlinebullying, including threats to their businesses, and questioned the value ofhis involvement. Mohammed recounted sitting them down to explain thatresignation was not a straightforward decision, as he possessed knowledge andinsights they did not have access to. “During the #EndSARS, one of the toughest moments in my lifewas when my family met. They had a meeting and they asked me to resign. Theywere bullied online,” he said. “They were bullied offline. Their businesses... they’d hadenough. They said, look, wait a minute. We are not benefiting from this thing. “So why are you exposing us? And I had to sit them down andtell them it’s not as easy as that. There are things I know. There are thingsthat I see that you cannot see.” TWITTER BAN WASN’T ABOUT BUHARI’S DELETED TWEET Mohammed, who spoke about his new book: ‘Headlines andSoundbites — Media Moments That Defined an Administration’, described thesuspension of Twitter (now X) in Nigeria as one of the most difficult decisionshe was part of. Then President Muhammadu Buhari suspended Twitter operationsin Nigeria indefinitely in 2021 after one of his posts was taken down. “One of the most difficult decisions I took was suspendingTwitter’s operation in Nigeria. I had to take that decision in the nationalinterest because a time came when Twitter became the platform of choice for allthose who wanted to destabilise the country,” he said. “There are some decisions that you have to take, not becauseyou like them.” He dismissed the narrative that the suspension wasretaliation for Twitter’s removal of Buhari’s tweet, which had threatened todeal with pro-Biafra separatists. “I went to President Buhari and told him we needed tosuspend Twitter’s operations. He asked me why and specifically said, ‘Is itbecause they deleted my tweet?’ I said no, sir, and I gave him instances andexamples,” Mohammed added.

Read More