On the night of 20 October 2020, at about 6:50 p.m., members of the Nigerian Army opened fire on unarmed End SARS protesters at the Lekki toll gate (Admiralty Circle Plaza) in Lagos State, Nigeria.

[3] A day after the incident, on 21 October, the governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-olu, denied reports of any loss of lives, but later admitted in an interview with a CNN journalist that "only two persons were killed".

[20][21][22] Within a few days of renewed protests, some claimed victory when, on Sunday, 11 October 2020, the Nigerian Police Force announced it would be dissolving SARS.

[23] However, many noted similar promises had been made in recent years, and that the government planned to reassign and review SARS officers to medical centers rather than remove them entirely.

On the night of 20 October 2020, Nigerian Armed Forces shot at unarmed protesters at the Lekki toll gate (officially Admiralty Circle Plaza) in Lagos, Nigeria.

[26] Also, the electricity supplying lights to the toll gate was cut and the advertisement billboards, which are owned and maintained by Loatsad Media, were turned off.

[33][34] Lagos-based risk advisory, SBM Intelligence estimated, based on witnesses and emergency services, that at least forty-six people were killed around Nigeria on Tuesday, 20 October according.

In an independent analysis of the attack, The Wall Street Journal investigated various clips from social media and concluded that indeed the massacre took place in Lekki.

[37] A detailed report by Nigerian newspaper, Premium Times, established the events that led to the massacre, an attempted cover-up, and abandonment of victims by the Lagos State Government.

[39] Denying this, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, claimed that no one was killed at Lekki and later posted on Twitter that one person died at the hospital as a result of blunt force trauma to the head, and that the connection to the protest was under investigation.

[41] On 23 July 2023, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu approved of the mass burial of 103 protesters who lost their lives during the EndSars incident.

[3] U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said that Nigerians' right "to protest peacefully needs to be guaranteed" and that "police brutality needs to stop, and those responsible for acts of such dramatic violence are made accountable".

[45] UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab expressed deep concern and alarm at the reports of civilian deaths, calling for an end to the violence.

[50] In solidarity and to pay his respect to the "fallen heroes", Nigerian musician Burna Boy released a song titled 20:10:20, marking the day of the Lekki massacre.

[61] Brigadier Ahmed Taiwo, Commander of the 81 Military Intelligence Brigade while giving a testimony to the Judicial Panel equally alleged that The Nigerian Army was called upon to intervene by the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

Taiwo added that Sanwo-Olu called the Chief of Army Staff and the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 81 Division, claiming that the Police had been "overrun".

[64] The Nigerian government rejected the report, with Lai Mohammed attributing media reactions to the shooting as "the triumph of fake news and the intimidation of a silent majority by a vociferous lynch mob".

Corroborating a previous testimony given by the Lekki Concession Company to the panel, the footage stopped at about 8 pm because the CCTV had been tampered with, ostensibly to provide cover for the shooting.

[72][73] On 9 November 2020, 20 days after the massacre, the disc jockey DJ Switch who gained nationwide fame for her live-stream of the shooting, was granted right of asylum in Canada after multiple threats on her life, with her close friend Salami Eric Adomokhar, reportedly missing.

On 10 July 2024, the ECOWAS Court of Justice ruled that the Nigerian government was guilty of human rights abuses for their actions during the #EndSARS protest at Lekki tollgate in October 2020.