Police Disperse Lekki #EndSARS Memorial With Tear Gas as Rights Questions Return
LAGOS — Police fired tear gas at people gathered at the Lekki Toll Gate on Tuesday for a memorial marking six years since the #EndSARS protests, forcing participants to flee and stopping a planned wreath-laying ceremony.
The memorial, organised by the Enough is Enough movement, drew residents, journalists, activists and political figures to the toll gate on October 20.
Multiple reports and video from the scene showed participants scrambling away as tear gas spread across the area.
The ceremony ended before organisers could lay the planned wreaths.
Police cite public safety
Police had deployed officers to the toll gate before the memorial began.
Reporting from the scene says officers restricted the gathering and cited concerns about public safety and the right of way of other Lagos residents.
At least one account also referred to police intelligence about the possibility of clashes involving opposing groups.
Those explanations remain police claims about the reason for the restriction.
The use of tear gas itself is separately supported by reporting and video from the scene.
Memorial becomes another policing test
The immediate issue is no longer only whether the ceremony was disrupted.
It is whether the police response was proportionate to what participants were doing at the time.
The memorial was organised to remember victims and contested events associated with the 2020 #EndSARS protests and to renew calls for police accountability and reform.
A Lagos Judicial Panel later found that protesters at Lekki were shot at, injured and killed on October 20, 2020, while the Lagos State Government rejected significant parts of that finding.
That historical dispute remains separate from the facts of Tuesday’s 2026 memorial.
What is established about this year’s gathering is that police used tear gas and the planned wreath-laying did not proceed.
Previous memorials have also faced police action
The Lekki Toll Gate has remained a recurring flashpoint during #EndSARS anniversaries.
Police also dispersed memorial gatherings in previous years.
In July 2025, a Federal High Court in Lagos awarded ₦10 million in damages after finding that participants in the October 20, 2024 memorial had their fundamental rights violated.
That precedent sharpens the accountability question around Tuesday’s intervention:
What legal and operational standard did police apply before deciding that tear gas was necessary at this year’s memorial?
Asking that question does not by itself establish that the 2026 police action was unlawful.
What remains unclear
IDNN has not established a definitive arrest total for the October 20, 2026 gathering.
Current reporting also does not provide a settled, authoritative count of injuries arising from the tear-gas dispersal.
Those details should not be inferred from videos showing people fleeing the scene.
A fuller Lagos State Police Command account of the operation, including the precise legal basis for restricting the memorial and any post-event review, remains important to the story.
Six years later, the argument remains unresolved
The #EndSARS movement began in 2020 as a protest against police brutality and abuses associated with the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
Six years later, the debate over policing, accountability and the right to assemble remains active.
The central facts of Tuesday’s event are straightforward:
People gathered for a memorial.
Police used tear gas to disperse them.
The wreath-laying did not proceed.
And the question of how Nigerian police manage peaceful civic gatherings remains open.