…fire teargas to disperse others
Police on Sunday arrested some of the protesters who converged on the Lekki tollgate in Lagos State to mark the fourth anniversary of the shooting of protesters by soldiers on October 20, 2020.
The protesters had converged on the tollgate in commemoration of the shooting incident.
The protesters, who gathered at the tollgate, sang and waved placards.
The protesters had converged at the toll gate at about 8:30 am with several banners and placards. They demanded full implementation of the reports submitted by various judicial panels of inquiry set up after the 2020 protests.
But policemen deployed at the toll gate attempted to disperse them with teargas and gunshots, arresting some of them in the process.
Some of the protesters were seen on viral videos on Sunday morning fleeing the toll gate as the police fired shots.
Recall that in October 2020, thousands of youths converged on major cities across the country to protest the constant harassment, killings, and extortion by officers of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a unit of the Nigeria Police.
The nationwide protest culminated at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos, where several youths were reportedly killed and many others severely injured following the intervention of the Nigerian military.
At the end of the protests, judicial panels were established across various states to assess and review the protesters’ demands.
But four years later, protest leaders have expressed deep regret that many of the panels’ recommendations have not been implemented.
A protester, who simply identified himself as Excel, said he fell into the gutter while running from the teargas fired by the officers trying to disperse them on Sunday morning.
Another protester, Bayo Are, claimed that to have been “hit” but added he was not “really injured.”
But he alleged that “some people have also been arrested.”
State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, said there was no confrontation between the police operatives and the protesters.
He however said the police had to disperse the protesters to prevent traffic disruption at the Lekki Toll Gate.
“They were told to disperse, but they were adamant; we had to use minimal force to disperse them,” the PPRO said.
