Last year, youths all over Nigeria began protesting police brutality and the actions of a particular unit known as SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) accused of molesting and profiling young men and extorting from them.
Protests took place all over the country. Most of the protesters faced teargas, and water hoses sprayed on them.
However, an important location for the End Sars protest was the Lekki Tollgate in Lekki Lagos. The Tollgate was blocked off and restricted by protesters.
I was in the city of Port Harcourt, Rivers on October 20, 2020. I had just passed a flock of protesters at Aba Road when I arrived home to see my roommate glued to DJ Switch’s Instagram Live where she reported the shootings as they was happening.
I remember feeling so hopeless, helpless and scared.
So, I asked a couple of people how they heard about what soon became dubbed as the Lekki Toll Gate Massacre and how they felt about it.
Salisu is a doctor who wasn’t on duty that fateful night, “I just got back from work, I had slept off and then I was woken up by a call. Someone wanted to bring victims to the hospital where I worked."
"After the call, I saw the whole thing on social media, and I froze. It made me feel devastated, distraught. I felt like I had to leave the country.”
Yomi knew about the massacre from clips on peoples' statuses on WhatsApp, “I felt like I was living in the wrong country with no value for people’s lives. I mean it might as well be me.
He believed it truly happened and was likely more horrifying than we could have imagined. “I knew it happened, no doubt, even Channels TV picked up live ammunition from the toll gate.”
Tunde says "I wasn’t surprised it happened. I heard rumours for a few days about the government potentially sending soldiers down there. Plus, it made me feel like there isn’t anything this government cannot do at this point.”
A year has passed, and most people feel shocked and terrified about the events of that fateful night.
Even though the government have vehemently denied it happened, judicial panels of inquiry were set up.
Young people online heldd a memorial for those who lost their lives.