Law enforcement officers deployed tear gas on Tuesday to break up a crowd gathering at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos, where citizens had assembled to commemorate six years since the fatal 2020 crackdown on anti-police-brutality demonstrators.
Live video feeds from the site depicted scenes of pandemonium, showing media crews, human rights advocates, ordinary participants, and political figures running for shelter as chemical irritants saturated the area.
The disruption occurred just as reporters were speaking with political contenders slated for the 2027 Lagos governorship race, including African Democratic Congress representative Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and Nigeria Democratic Congress contender Funsho Doherty. Suddenly, canisters were launched into the crowd, immediately followed by live gunfire that sent attendees and press personnel scrambling in panic.
The heavy-handed response recalled the harrowing night of October 20, 2020, when armed security forces advanced into the darkened toll plaza and fired upon defenseless citizens, leaving numerous individuals dead and dozens more severely wounded.
In the intervening years, state authorities have routinely set up blockades and security cordons around the plaza to suppress annual memorial gatherings. Efforts by the state to resume commercial tolling at the site have consistently triggered fierce pushback from a public still processing the trauma of that watershed moment.
More than half a decade on, arbitrary abuses and excessive force by law enforcement remain persistent issues across Nigeria. Despite extensive documentation, eyewitness testimonies, and forensic reports detailing the toll plaza carnage, official figures continue to contest the historical record and reject findings of state culpability.
