By Seyi Odewale
The police yesterday in Lagos arrested four persons at the Lekki Tollgate while firing teargas to disperse protesters, who were marking the 2nd anniversary of the protests on police brutality yesterday.
But report have that those arrrested were later released by the police.
Many protesters, onlookers and journalists took to their heels as the teargas saturated the air.
The police began to fire the teargas when the protesters laid some coffins at the tollgate to round off their demonstration. Those arrested were identified as Ifeanyi, Olamide Raheemi, Samuel Ishola and one unidentified person. They were detained in a police van.
However, despite the heavy police presence, some youth including artists such as Folarin ‘Falz’ Falana, Adebowale ‘ Mr Macaroni’ Adedayo and others joined the solidarity walk.
The walk was to mark the second memorial of the Lekki shooting that took place at the tollgate and to honour those that lost their lives to police and military brutality.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Police Command Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Benjamin Hundeyin, yesterday explained why tear gas was shot at the #EndSARS memorial procession by men of the command.
According to him in an interview on Channels TV, the procession was dispersed when it began to cause a traffic gridlock. He said the procession had stopped, and traffic was building at the Lekki tollgate, adding that the police had to fire tear gas to disperse the crowd in to relieve the traffic at the spot.
The police command had said earlier that there would not be any problems as long as the procession did not stop as the agreement the command had with the protesters was that their procession would not gather at a place, that the protesters would keep moving.
According to Hundeyin, some troublemakers wanted to breach the peace, which made the police to swing into action.
He said: “Everything was going fine until they stopped and started laying the coffins on the ground and all. They were doing all these and traffic at the toll gate was building.
“We needed to ensure that there was free flow of traffic in the area, because the agreement was that the procession would not stop, that was why we fired tear gas. After the crowd was dispersed, no single canister of tear gas was fired again.
“Right now, there is free flow of traffic in the area and calm has been restored.”
When he was asked about those arrested and locked up in the black maria truck, Hundeyin said they had all been released.
“Some troublemakers wanted to breach the peace in the area, so they were picked up and locked up in the van. But after everything had calmed down and the protesters dispersed, they were all released. I can confirm that we have no one in our custody at the tollgate now,” he said.
