The Lagos State Police Command has explained that its men fired teargas at the Lekki Tollgate on Wednesday to disperse miscreants who had infiltrated the #EndSARSMemorial protests.
“We did not fire teargas to disperse protesters, but miscreants,” Hakeem Odumosu, the Commissioner of Police in the state, said from the Lekki Tollgate Plaza on Wednesday.
Odumosu said the police authorities in the state had agreed with planners of the protests that they have the right to protest, as long as they did so from their vehicles at the Plaza and blow their horns, but without coming down.
The police boss said it was those who were on foot at the Plaza that were miscreants who try to hijack the protests. “If they are on foot that is when they begin to gather,” Odumosu said.
Police in Lagos had earlier banned all forms of outdoor protests to commemorate the October 20, 2020 shooting at the plaza, where an unknown number of protesters was said to have been shot to death.
“We arrested someone with a machete. Is that a protester?” Odumosu asked.
Lekki Tollgate Plaza was the epicenter of the protests last year, which turned bloody when men in military fatigue allegedly fired live bullets at the unarmed protesters who had occupied the place.
They were protesting against the brutality of a unit of the Nigeria Police called Special Anti-Robbery Squad. The team had been accused of extortion, rape, killing, and other vices, and was eventually disbanded by the government.
Odumsu said “a number of people” had been arrested, explaining that they would be screened to establish their identities and reason for bei
