Police Deny Tear-Gassing Pensioners Amid Calls For Lagos CP’s Sacking

The Lagos State chapter of the #EndBadGovernance movement has demanded the immediate sack of the Commissioner of Police, Tijani Fatai, over the alleged use of tear gas by police officers against pensioners protesting at the Lagos House, Ikeja.

The group also called for the arrest and prosecution of all police personnel involved in what it described as an “unpardonable assault” on elderly protesters demanding unpaid pension increases, wage awards, arrears and other entitlements from the Lagos State Government.

In a statement issued on Tuesday and signed by Oloye Adegboyega-Adeniji and Hassan Taiwo Soweto on behalf of the organising committee, the movement condemned the alleged use of teargas against the pensioners and demanded an unreserved public apology from the state government.

The group expressed solidarity with the retirees and urged the Lagos State Government to immediately meet their demands and resolve all outstanding issues concerning pension increases, wage awards, arrears and other entitlements.

It said, “It is outrageous that elderly Nigerians who spent decades working and serving the state could be met with such violence simply for demanding what is rightfully theirs. These are not criminals. They are retirees demanding the payment of their entitlements in the face of a brutal cost-of-living crisis.”

The movement also condemned the conduct of Fatai and the officers under his command, arguing that the police had a constitutional responsibility to protect citizens exercising their right to peaceful assembly.

It demanded the immediate removal of the police commissioner and the arrest and prosecution of officers allegedly involved in the incident.

The group further accused the Lagos State Police Command of engaging in a “consistent pattern of assault on civil liberties” with the alleged support of the state government.

According to the movement, Monday’s incident was similar to the alleged police assault on protesters during the January 28 anti-eviction protest in Alausa.

It claimed that during the January protest, police officers deployed teargas and excessive force against protesters and passersby, while some protesters were arrested and their equipment and personal belongings seized.

“Yesterday, pensioners demanding their unpaid entitlements have suffered a similar fate. This is not a coincidence; it is a pattern,” the group said.

The #EndBadGovernance movement alleged that the APC-led government in Lagos had become “the biggest threat to civil liberties in the country”, accusing the administration and security agencies of using police force to suppress dissent.

“From young activists protesting against anti-poor policies to elderly pensioners demanding their legitimate entitlements, the response of the Lagos state government and security apparatus increasingly appears to be: deploy the police, disperse the people and criminalize dissent. This is completely unacceptable under a civil rule,” it said.

The movement called on Amnesty International, human rights organisations and other concerned citizens to investigate what it described as a “dangerous drift into authoritarianism” in Lagos.

It also demanded the establishment of an independent panel of inquiry to investigate the conduct of the Lagos State Police Command in managing public protests and demonstrations from August 1, 2024, to date.

The proposed panel, it said, should investigate incidents of police violence, arrests, intimidation, teargas deployment and other alleged excessive use of force against peaceful protesters, including the January 28 anti-eviction protest and Monday’s incident involving pensioners.

It further urged the panel to identify officers and authorities responsible for any violations and recommend appropriate disciplinary and criminal sanctions.

The movement maintained that the repeated deployment of combat-ready police personnel against peaceful protesters was incompatible with civil rule and called on the Nigeria Police Force to develop clear operational directives that protect peaceful assembly.

Meanwhile, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, also on Monday condemned the use of teargas against the pensioners.

Sowore described the action as an “unprovoked attack” on elderly citizens who were peacefully demanding their entitlements and called for the identification, arrest, investigation and prosecution of the officers responsible.

“It is bad enough that these senior citizens are being denied their legitimate post-retirement entitlements after giving years of their lives in service. To then unleash tear gas on them for peacefully demanding what is rightfully theirs is cruel, reckless, and completely unacceptable,” Sowore said.

The Lagos State Government had earlier said its administration had recorded what it described as the most outstanding performance on pension matters in the history of the state.

The government said the Lagos State Pension Commission had paid N168.2bn to more than 48,000 retirees from 2007 to date.

It added that between May 2019 and August 2026, N92bn had been disbursed in accrued rights to more than 25,000 retirees.

However, reacting in a statement on Tuesday, the Lagos State Police Command denied the allegation that the protesting pensioners were tear-gassed.

According to the command’s spokesperson, Abimbola Adebisi, “the allegation is false and misleading. Not a single canister of tear gas was fired throughout the duration of the protest.”