Originally published 2020-10-22.
On the evening of 20 October 2020, Nigerian soldiers opened fire on young people who had gathered at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos to protest against police brutality. The demonstrators were part of the #EndSARS movement, named after the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a police unit accused for years of extortion, torture and killings. A state judicial panel later concluded that army and police officers shot, wounded and killed unarmed protesters that night, although the exact death toll has never been settled and the federal government has rejected the panel's findings.
The shooting became the defining moment of Nigeria's largest youth protest movement in decades. This article explains what SARS was, why the protests grew, what happened at Lekki, and what investigators found afterwards.
What SARS was and why young Nigerians wanted it gone
SARS was set up in the early 1990s as a plain-clothes unit to tackle armed robbery and other violent crime. Over time it built a reputation for the opposite of public safety. Human rights groups documented illegal stop-and-searches, arbitrary detention, sexual violence, extortion and extrajudicial killings. Amnesty International recorded 82 cases of torture and killing by SARS between January 2017 and May 2020 alone.
Young men were frequent targets. Many said they had been stopped simply for having dreadlocks, tattoos, an iPhone, a laptop or a nice car, which officers treated as signs of internet fraud. The hashtag #EndSARS first spread in 2017, and the government announced reforms several times without lasting change.
How the October 2020 protests began
The spark came in early October 2020, when a video circulated that appeared to show SARS officers shooting a young man in Ughelli, Delta State. Within days, protests spread across Lagos, Abuja and other cities. They were largely peaceful, organised online and funded by crowdfunding; the Feminist Coalition alone raised tens of millions of naira for medical care, legal aid and food.
On 11 October the police announced that SARS was being dissolved. Protesters had heard similar promises before, and they noted that officers were to be redeployed rather than removed. When a new unit called SWAT was announced two days later, the slogan simply became #EndSWAT. The movement put forward five demands, including the release of arrested protesters, justice and compensation for victims, an independent body to investigate police misconduct, psychological evaluation of former SARS officers, and better police pay.
Solidarity rallies were held in London, New York and other cities, and Nigerian stars such as Wizkid, along with international figures including Beyoncé and Rihanna, spoke up in support.
The night of 20 October at the Lekki toll gate
As unrest spread and some protests were hijacked by looters and armed gangs, Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu announced a 24-hour curfew on 20 October, first set to begin at 4 p.m. and later pushed back to 9 p.m. Thousands of protesters remained at the Lekki toll gate, many sitting on the ground, singing the national anthem and waving Nigerian flags.
Around 6:50 p.m., soldiers arrived and opened fire. Before they came, the toll gate's lights and an electronic billboard were switched off, and witnesses reported that cameras had been removed. The DJ and broadcaster Obianuju Udeh, known as DJ Switch, livestreamed the scene on Instagram, and her footage of wounded people and gunfire became one of the key pieces of evidence. She later fled Nigeria after receiving threats and was granted asylum in Canada.
Survivors interviewed by journalists and by Human Rights Watch described soldiers aiming into the crowd rather than over people's heads, and seeing bodies taken away by security forces. That same night the governor posted a statement saying he had watched with shock as a peaceful protest turned violent, a message that many protesters felt blamed them rather than the gunmen.
Dear Lagosians,
— Babajide Sanwo-Olu (@jidesanwoolu) October 20, 2020
I have watched with shock how what began as a peaceful #EndSARS protest has degenerated into a monster that is threatening the well-being of our society. Lives and limbs have been lost as criminals and miscreants are now hiding under the umbrella
...
How many people died?
This remains the most contested question. Amnesty International said that at least 12 people were killed in the Lagos shootings that night, and it called on the authorities to explain the use of lethal force.
While we continue to investigate the killings, Amnesty International wishes to remind the authorities that under international law, security forces may only resort to the use of lethal force when strictly unavoidable to protect against imminent threat of death or serious injury.
— Amnesty International Nigeria (@AmnestyNigeria) October 20, 2020
The Lagos governor first said nobody had died and later said two people were killed. The army initially called reports of the shooting fake news, then admitted that soldiers had been deployed to enforce the curfew, while denying that they shot at protesters.
The Lagos judicial panel, chaired by retired judge Doris Okuwobi, delivered its report on 15 November 2021. According to Human Rights Watch, it listed 48 casualties, including 11 people dead, 4 missing and presumed dead, and 21 wounded by gunshots. The panel said it could not determine the total number of people killed. It found that the army had blocked ambulances from reaching the wounded, that bullet casings were collected from the scene and that the site was cleaned the next morning, which it treated as part of an attempt to cover up what happened.
The federal government dismissed the leaked report as fake, and the Lagos state government's own white paper disputed several of its conclusions, including the description of the event as a massacre. Some testimony before the panel has also been questioned by analysts. That is why careful accounts still describe the death toll as uncertain.
What happened after the shooting
In the days after 20 October, Lagos saw widespread arson and looting, including attacks on police stations, a television station and businesses. Nationwide, the violence surrounding the protests killed dozens of civilians as well as police officers and soldiers. Banks froze accounts linked to protest organisers, and several activists were detained or barred from travelling.
Accountability has been slow. The panel recommended disciplinary action against implicated soldiers, prosecution of police officers and compensation for victims. In 2024 the ECOWAS Court of Justice, the regional court for West Africa, ruled that Nigeria had violated protesters' human rights and ordered compensation for named victims. For many survivors, though, there has still been no criminal trial of anyone who fired on the crowd.
Why Lekki still matters
Nigeria is Africa's most populous country, and more than half of its people are under 30. The #EndSARS protests showed how quickly that generation could organise online, raise money and draw global attention. The shooting at Lekki showed how dangerous it remains to protest against the security forces themselves.
Every 20 October since, young Nigerians have marked the anniversary, both online and at the toll gate, often under heavy police presence. The demand that runs through those memorials is the same one the panel made: that the people responsible are identified and that the victims' families are compensated.
Sources: Human Rights Watch: Nigeria: Officials indicted in abuses of protesters (19 November 2021); Wikipedia: Lekki massacre; Wikipedia: End SARS.
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