Young Nigerians held sustained demonstrations in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and other cities demanding the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a police unit long accused of extortion, torture and extrajudicial killings.
The federal government announced the unit's dissolution within days, but protests continued over the absence of accountability and the announcement of a successor unit. On the evening of 20 October soldiers opened fire at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos, where demonstrators had gathered.
A Lagos judicial panel later concluded that the shooting amounted to a massacre. EndSARS became a defining political moment for a generation of Nigerians and reshaped civic organising in the country.
