The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) has accused the Nigerian authorities of suppressing public remembrance of the victims of the October 20, 2020, #EndSARS protests, following reports that police fired tear gas to disperse a memorial gathering at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos.
Okechukwu Nwanguma, Executive Director of RULAAC, said the reported incident on the sixth anniversary of the #EndSARS protests raised concerns about the government’s commitment to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and accountability for alleged abuses by security forces.
In a statement dated October 20, 2026, titled “What Is the Government Afraid of at Lekki Toll Gate?”, Nwanguma described the reported use of tear gas against activists and other citizens who gathered to honour the victims as part of a troubling pattern of repression.
He recalled that a similar incident occurred during the 2024 memorial, when witnesses reportedly said police fired tear gas and assaulted participants.
“This is therefore not an isolated operational error; it is becoming an annual pattern of repression,” he said.
Nwanguma argued that the authorities’ response to the memorial reflected fears about public memory, accountability, collective remembrance and the loss of control over the official narrative surrounding the 2020 shootings.
According to him, every wreath laid at the Lekki Toll Gate represents a rejection of attempts to erase, deny or minimise the events of October 20, 2020.
He cited the findings of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry, which found that soldiers and police shot at peaceful protesters at the toll gate. He also referenced Amnesty International’s position that security forces killed protesters at Lekki and Alausa during the #EndSARS demonstrations.
The RULAAC executive director said that six years after the incident, fundamental questions about the shootings remained unanswered.
“Who ordered the deployment? Who authorised the use of live ammunition? How many people were killed or injured? What happened to those reportedly taken away? Which officers have been prosecuted?” he asked.
He maintained that commemorative gatherings kept these questions alive and highlighted what he described as the government’s failure to provide truth, justice and reparations to victims and their families.
Nwanguma also described the Lekki Toll Gate as more than a physical location, saying it had become a national symbol of police brutality, state violence, youth resistance and official impunity.
He suggested that the authorities might be concerned that memorial activities could revive the solidarity and civic mobilisation witnessed during the October 2020 protests.
According to him, peaceful gatherings involving survivors, families, journalists, activists and political figures challenge attempts to portray every public assembly as a security threat or every protester as violent.
While acknowledging that the police might cite concerns about obstruction, violence or a breakdown of public order, Nwanguma insisted that such concerns could not justify the indiscriminate dispersal of peaceful gatherings.
He cited Sections 39 and 40 of the Nigerian Constitution, which protect freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, arguing that any restriction must be lawful, necessary and proportionate to a genuine and demonstrable threat.
“A peaceful memorial cannot lawfully be dispersed simply because the government considers its message uncomfortable,” he said.
Nwanguma added that the police had a responsibility to facilitate and protect peaceful assemblies, manage traffic and isolate individuals who committed offences rather than treating all participants as criminals.
He warned that deploying tear gas against people commemorating victims of police brutality risked reproducing the same conduct that triggered the #EndSARS movement.
“It confirms the argument that although SARS was formally disbanded, the institutional culture of intolerance, excessive force and impunity remains substantially unchanged,” he said.
The RULAAC director urged the government to protect peaceful mourners, acknowledge the victims, publish a credible account of the events of October 20, 2020, implement the recommendations of the judicial panel and prosecute anyone found responsible for wrongdoing.
He argued that dispersing memorial gatherings would neither erase the tragedy nor resolve the questions surrounding the shootings.
Instead, he said, such actions could deepen public distrust, reinforce suspicions of a continuing cover-up and demonstrate that demands for police reform remained unresolved.
“A government confident in its democratic legitimacy should not be frightened by flowers, wreaths, prayers or moments of silence,” Nwanguma said.
He concluded: “Remembrance is not a crime. Mourning is not a threat to national security. And Lekki Toll Gate must not become an annual theatre of police repression.”
