President Bola Tinubu’s social media aide, Dada Olusegun, has questioned former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s demand for answers over the 2020 Lekki Toll Gate shooting.
Olusegun asked why Atiku did not raise the issue during his meetings with former President Muhammadu Buhari, who was in office when the #EndSARS protests took place.
The presidential aide made the remarks while responding to Atiku’s call for accountability on the sixth anniversary of the protests.
He recalled that Atiku visited Buhari in Daura, Katsina State, on June 22, 2024, and later met him at his retirement residence in Kaduna on April 11, 2025.
According to Olusegun, those meetings gave Atiku opportunities to question Buhari about the events surrounding the Lekki shooting.
He accused the former vice president of raising the issue for political reasons and described his demand as insincere. These were Olusegun’s claims and were not independently established in the statement.
Atiku Demands Answers Six Years After Lekki Shooting
Atiku had renewed his call for accountability in a post on X, asking who authorised the shooting at the Lekki Toll Gate during the October 2020 protests.
He criticised the All Progressives Congress (APC), accusing the ruling party of failing to provide clear answers about the incident and address the concerns of young Nigerians.
Atiku also revisited Tinubu’s response to the protests in 2020, when the current president was a prominent political figure but not yet president.
The former vice president’s comments revived questions about responsibility for the events at Lekki and the government’s handling of the crisis.
Tinubu’s Aide Defends President
Olusegun argued that Tinubu also suffered losses and faced danger during the unrest. He claimed that the president’s residence on Bourdillon Road in Lagos was nearly razed and that Tinubu and his domestic staff had to flee for safety.
The aide also challenged Atiku’s use of the term “Lekki Massacre,” arguing that the description had not been definitively established through legal proceedings.
He accused Atiku of using the incident to criticise Tinubu and advance his own presidential ambition. Olusegun also dismissed the former vice president’s renewed political messaging as an attempt to gain campaign support.
Lekki Shooting Remains a Contentious Issue
The #EndSARS protests began in October 2020, as young Nigerians called for an end to police brutality and the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
The shooting at the Lekki Toll Gate became one of the most controversial events of the protests, prompting continuing demands for transparency and accountability.
Questions surrounding the incident, including what happened that night and who was responsible, remain part of Nigeria’s public debate.
The latest exchange between Atiku and Tinubu’s aide has once again brought the Lekki shooting into the political spotlight, with both sides offering sharply different interpretations of the issue.
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