Police officers on Tuesday fired tear gas at residents, journalists, activists and political figures who gathered at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the October 2020 #EndSARS protests, disrupting a planned wreath-laying ceremony.
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Among those caught in the police action were Lagos State governorship candidates Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Funso Doherty of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), who had joined other participants at the tollgate for the memorial.
The commemoration was organised by the Enough is Enough (EiE) movement to honour those who died during the nationwide demonstrations against police brutality and to keep alive demands for accountability and reforms in Nigeria’s policing system.
Participants had gathered at the tollgate for a wreath-laying ceremony, but police officers who had deployed to the area dispersed the gathering with tear gas before the wreaths could be laid.
The action triggered confusion at the venue, with participants scrambling for safety as clouds of tear gas spread across the area. The ceremony was consequently brought to an abrupt end.
Rhodes-Vivour and Doherty were among those affected as police dispersed the gathering. Residents and journalists present at the scene were also forced to leave the area.
The incident came exactly six years after the events of October 20, 2020, when the Lekki Toll Gate became one of the most prominent locations of the #EndSARS demonstrations.
The protests had begun as a campaign against abuses associated with the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad before expanding into broader demands for police accountability, an end to brutality and wider governance reforms.
On October 20, 2020, soldiers were deployed to the Lekki Toll Gate while protesters were gathered there. The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry subsequently found that protesters were shot, injured and killed, although the Lagos State Government later rejected key aspects of the panel’s conclusions concerning casualties.
Since then, the tollgate has remained an important site for annual commemorations by activists, civil society organisations and other Nigerians seeking to preserve the memory of the protests and press for accountability.
Tuesday’s memorial was intended to continue that tradition, but the police intervention prevented organisers and participants from completing the planned wreath-laying.
The latest incident also renewed attention to the treatment of citizens gathering peacefully to commemorate the protests, particularly because police have similarly dispersed #EndSARS anniversary gatherings at the tollgate in previous years.
In 2021, police fired tear gas during an anniversary procession at the location. A similar incident occurred in 2024 when protesters marking the fourth anniversary were dispersed after gathering at the tollgate.
As of the time the initial reports were filed on Tuesday, the Lagos State Police Command had not publicly provided an explanation for the decision to disperse the memorial gathering with tear gas.
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