Lagos Police: We Fired Cannisters To Disperse ‘Miscreants,’ Not #EndSARS Protesters

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, on Wednesday led his men to disperse some Nigerians who gathered at the Lekki Toll Gate for the remembrance of the October 2020 #EndSARS protests.

The memorial procession was specifically organized to honour Nigerians who lost their lives during the nationwide protest against police brutality and bad governance.

At the Lekki Toll Gate on Wednesday, some of the protesters were seen waving Nigerian flags and shouting #EndSARS.

Speaking to journalists at the venue, Odumosu explained that his men did not fire cannisters at protesters but “miscreants” who he claimed had taken over the event.

“We didn’t fire cannisters to disperse the protesters [but] the miscreants. If you have your recording, you will know the time of the cannisters that we fired.

“And if you go back historically, you will see the period that they [the protesters] posted for the protest, between 8 and 10 am.

“Secondly, we agreed that they need to move in vehicles, not on foot and we agreed that they won’t come down from their vehicles to address anybody,” he told Channels TV in a live interview at the venue.

The police boss said his men used “minimum force” to disperse the miscreants to forestall breakdown of law and order as witnessed during last year’s protests.

Odumosu noted that organizers of the protest specifically stated that they were going to hold the procession from 8 to 10 am.

“I was told by the organizers that as at 10 O’clock, they have departed,” he told Arise News, adding that “The miscreants now have taken over. I called Tope who is one of their leaders, who is representing the youths at the tribunal, and he said as at N10 O’clock they had left.

“I even got information that the protesters are going to the Alausa Secretariat, but he (Tope) told me pointedly that they are not going to anywhere, that they had gone back to their houses.”

On the number of persons arrested by his men, he said: “Only two, and I was told that one of them is a journalist. He was not with an ID card as at that time, So, he didn’t identify himself. So, now that somebody called me that he has identified himself, I ordered that he should be released.”