Former Vice President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has called out the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the unresolved Lekki shooting, saying Nigerians still need answers six years after the tragedy.
Atiku, in a statement issued on Tuesday via his X handle, demanded to know who gave the order for the shooting of peaceful protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020, during the nationwide #EndSARS protests against police brutality.
The Lekki shootings followed the #EndSARS protests, which began on October 8, 2020, were initially aimed at disbanding the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a police unit accused of extortion, harassment, torture and extrajudicial killings.
The demonstrations later expanded into broader calls for police reform and good governance. On the night of October 20, 2020, soldiers arrived at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos, where young protesters had gathered for days, and opened fire. Witnesses described the lights going off shortly before soldiers shot into the crowd.
Amnesty International, in its investigation, confirmed that the Nigerian army and police killed at least 12 peaceful protesters at Lekki and Alausa that night.
The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry, set up to investigate the incident, later found the military and police responsible for the shootings, describing it as a “massacre in context”.
However, the Federal Government rejected the panel’s findings, and its recommendations remain largely unimplemented years later .
Atiku in his post on Tuesday, recalled that in October 2020, President Bola Tinubu, rather than demonstrating the empathy the tragedy demanded, suggested that those who suffered casualties had questions to answer.
He quoted Tinubu as asking: “How were they there? How long were they there? What kind of characters are they?” Atiku noted that at a moment when Nigerians were demanding accountability for the violence against peaceful protesters, the President’s response appeared more concerned with questioning the victims than demanding answers from those responsible.
The former Vice President said the anger trending across the country today is not a social media performance but grief that has been left to harden into distrust, the pain of families still demanding answers, and of young people who watched their calls for dignity meet violence and then watched the country move on without the truth they deserve.
He said the APC has governed Nigeria through these six years and cannot keep asking Nigerians to remember the dead while refusing to confront the unanswered questions, adding that a government that cannot give citizens confidence that their lives matter has failed one of its most basic duties.
Atiku further said the hardship young people face today deepens that betrayal, noting that petrol at N1,405 a litre means more than an expensive journey, it means less money for food, school, rent and work, and that a young person can do everything asked of them and still find the door to a decent life shut in their face.
He said the APC promised renewal, but for too many Nigerians the experience has been rising costs, shrinking opportunity and a future pushed further out of reach, stressing that no speech about growth can excuse empty pockets, no anniversary tribute can replace justice, and no campaign slogan can erase six years of unanswered questions.
Recounting a personal account, Atiku said one of his aides told him about a young woman who was forced to resign from her job this month because her salary could no longer cover the cost of getting to work.
He quoted the woman as saying: “The pay no longer covers transport. Everything in Nigeria just dey increase in price. Feels like I’m working for Bolt guys.”
Atiku said it was heartbreaking that a Nigerian who had secured employment could no longer afford to remain employed, describing it as the cruel reality of an economy in which even those fortunate enough to have jobs are being priced out of earning a living.
He said the policies of the government are stifling not only the unemployed but also hardworking Nigerians whose salaries have become increasingly worthless in the face of rising costs.
The former Vice President said this is precisely the hardship his Economic Recovery Plan is designed to address, with one overriding objective: to Make Nigeria Affordable Again.
He said his policy response is built around relief people can feel, support tied to fuel refined in Nigeria, with the savings passed on to consumers; more local production to create jobs; protection for minimum wage earners and student support; and funding these measures by cutting waste instead of imposing new taxes.
Atiku said young Nigerians deserve the truth about Lekki, a government that protects life, and an economy that gives work a chance to lead somewhere, adding that six years on, the APC has had ample time to answer for its record.
“Nigerians are entitled to ask why the answers and the opportunities are still missing,” he said.
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