Police on Wednesday fired teargas at the Lekki tollgate to disperse protesters.<\/p>\n
This led to some of the protesters running helter-skelter.<\/span><\/p>\n The youths had converged on the Lekki tollgate to mark the first anniversary of #EndSARS in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n Earlier, operatives of the Lagos State Police Command arrested two protesters.<\/span><\/p>\n One of those arrested claimed to be a journalist while the other was seen carrying a placard.<\/span><\/p>\n About 30 police trucks and armed personnel are currently at the tollgate to enforce a ban on protests issued by the police command.<\/span><\/p>\n The #EndSARS protests which were held in October 2020 were against the activities of the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a unit of the Nigeria Police Force which was accused of police brutality.<\/span><\/p>\n The epicentre of the protests was the Lekki tollgate in Lagos where many youths gathered day and night to air their grievances against police brutality and bad governance.<\/span><\/p>\n They were dispersed from the location by gun-wielding soldiers on October 20, 2020, an action which some quarters believe led to the loss of lives.<\/span><\/p>\n This was followed by the destruction of private and public properties by hoodlums in Lagos, an incident that informed the latest warning issued by the police in the state.<\/span><\/p>\n The Lagos State Police Command had said no form of street protest in commemoration of the #EndSARS anniversary would be tolerated in any part of the state.<\/span><\/p>\n The state Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Adekunle Ajisebutu, in a statement on Tuesday, dispelled the rumour circulating on social media that the police had agreed to allow street demonstrations to commemorate the #EndSARS protest anniversary scheduled to hold today (Wednesday).<\/span><\/p>\n He said the command would only allow indoor and virtual events in commemoration of the anniversary.<\/span><\/p>\n Ajisebutu said, \u201cThe attention of the Lagos State Police Command has been drawn to a post being circulated on social media insinuating that the police in Lagos have agreed to allow street protests in commemoration of the one-year #EndSARS anniversary on October 20, 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOn the contrary, the police will only allow indoor and virtual events in commemoration of the #EndSARS anniversary and will provide adequate security at the venue(s) if known. This is in recognition of the rights of every Nigerian to express his or her interest.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe wish we could permit such street protests. However, intelligence at our disposal has revealed plans by some faceless groups or individuals to stage an anti-#EndSARS anniversary protest in the state on the same day.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn view of the conflicting interest between the pro and anti-#EndSARS anniversary groups and threat to cause mayhem, the command once again warns both groups against any form of street protest between now and October 20, 2021 and beyond.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Details later\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Police on Wednesday fired teargas at the Lekki tollgate to disperse protesters. This led to some of the protesters running helter-skelter. The youths had converged on the Lekki tollgate to mark the first anniversary of #EndSARS in the country. Earlier, operatives of the Lagos State Police Command arrested two protesters. One of those arrested claimed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3384,3385,62,1113,3386],"class_list":["post-5554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-endsarsmemorial","tag-lekki-tollgate","tag-police","tag-protesters","tag-tear-gas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5556,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5554\/revisions\/5556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}