Former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has again maintained his long-held position that no life was lost at the Lekki toll gate during the 2020 EndSARS protest in Lagos.
Mohammed restated his stance on Wednesday while speaking on Prime Time, an Arise Television programme, where he revisited the controversy surrounding the incident that sparked national and global attention.
He argued that despite widespread claims of a “massacre”, no family has come forward in the last five years to report a missing relative who failed to return after visiting the toll plaza on the night of the incident.
“People died in many places during EndSARS, but saying there was a massacre at the toll gate is fake news.
“I still stand by my pushback. Nobody died during the EndSARS. No! People died in Abuja and in Kano. CNN was not at the toll gate. CNN relied on second hand and third hand information.
“My argument and logic was very simple. 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 toll gate and didn’t come back.
The narrative that there was a massacre at the toll gate is fake news,” he said.