Thread by @JoeWSJ

Tonight Nigerian security forces stormed the most prominent site of the #EndSARS protests in Lagos, firing live rounds & killing several people as the government sought to end two weeks of marches against police brutality. Here's our report - and a thread: wsj.com/articles/niger…

Three eyewitnesses who were gathered at the Lekki toll gate, a protest hub situated on one of Lagos’ busiest intersections, said that shortly after 7pm soldiers arrived in pickup trucks and fired tear gas then bullets into the crowd.

It was not immediately clear how many people had been killed, but each of the witnesses said they saw several bodies on the road. Videos from the scene showed graphic scenes of screaming protesters surrounding bloodied corpses, visible through a haze of yellow tear gas smoke.

"The nigerian government sent the army to come and kill us," said Akinbosola Adeyemi, a talkshow host who ran one kilometer to safety. "A lot of people were hit. You are not meant to shoot live firearms against us."

Nigeria’s army referred questions about the killings to the civil police, who couldn’t didn’t respond to calls for comment. Nigeria’s national government also couldn’t be reached.

The decision to deploy deadly force to quell the youth-driven #EndSARS protests moves Nigeria’s politics into an uncertain new phase. The intervention comes just hours after the Lagos govt declared a curfew saying protests had “degenerated into a monster.”

The Lekki toll gate has been a key rallying point for national demonstrations, with food stalls, canvas tents and protesters singing songs behind a large plasma screen carrying the slogan Soro Soke, or “speak louder.”

Now the gate has also become a symbol of demonstrators’ lives lost. The big question is whether it becomes a site that makes a mark on history — like Tahrir square — or one that fades, like Bahrain’s Pearl roundabout?