Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, and campaigners have criticised the Nigeria Police Force for allegedly harassing protestors marking the fourth anniversary of the #EndSARS protest.
About 23 activists who gathered at the Lekki Toll Gate to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the #EndSARS protest were reported to be arrested by police.
According to eyewitnesses, the activists, including three ladies, were initially dispersed by police officers firing tear gas before being picked up and thrown into an awaiting Black Maria, which drove them to Panti Police Station in Yaba, where they were held.
Chronicle NG obtained videos on Sunday morning showing demonstrators running as police fired teargas at the toll gate.
Around 8:30 a.m., the protestors gathered at the toll gate, holding multiple banners and placards calling for the complete implementation of the reports provided by several judicial panels of inquiry established following the 2020 protests.
The #EndSARS protest began on October 1, 2020, with young people demonstrating against ongoing police misbehaviour, including killings, brutality, harassment, extortion, and intimidation, mainly by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
The demonstration lasted several days and concluded on October 20 outside the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos, where soldiers allegedly killed many youths.
Although the government denied responsibility for the killings, many young people and others maintained that the military was to blame, prompting activists to hold annual commemorations.
Speaking with one of our correspondents on Sunday, one of the protestors, known only as Excel, said he fell into the gutter while fleeing the authorities’ teargas.
“They have started firing teargas at us. I fell into the gutter; I was hit on the head,” he said.
Another protester, Bayo Are, stated, “I was hit too. I’m not really injured, just a few scratches on my body. Some people have also been arrested.”
Speaking with the press on Sunday, one of the arrested activists, Olawale Doroorike, said they were arrested immediately after disembarking from their bus.
According to him, the heavily armed police operatives teargassed, beat, and bundled them into the Black Maria.
He said, “We are currently being detained at Panti Police Station in Yaba, waiting for our lawyers. Twenty-three of us were arrested at Lekki Toll Gate, where we were to commemorate the fourth anniversary of our comrades killed during the #EndSARS protest on October 20, 2020.
“We arrived at the toll gate around 10 or 10:30 am. As soon as we disembarked from our bus, fully armed police officers rushed at us, fired teargas, beat us, and pushed us into the Black Maria.”
Juwon Sanyaolu, the National Coordinator of the Take It Back Movement, condemned the arrest of the protesters.
“The continuous harassment, arrest, and detention of protesters were exactly part of the reasons for the #ENDSARS protest in 2020.
“It is clear that even four years after the historic action, the police and the government giving them orders have not changed. We will reject this tyranny and resist every attempt to shrink the Nigerian civic space,” the activist said in an interview with reporters on Sunday.
Also, the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre “strongly condemned the arrest, brutalisation, and detention of peaceful protesters commemorating the anniversary of the Lekki Tollgate massacre on October 20, 2024.”
In a statement on Sunday, RULAAC’s Executive Director, Okechukwu Nwanguma, noted that the protest served as a vital memorial event to honour victims and advocate justice and reforms in the security sector.
“As legitimate expressions of free speech and assembly, these peaceful protests should be protected under democratic principles. The use of excessive force against peaceful demonstrators is undemocratic and unjustified, especially as no offences have been committed,” Nwanguma stated.
Renowned human rights organisation Amnesty International, Nigeria chapter, said it had continued to receive reports of human rights abuse, including unlawful detention, extortion, torture, and sexual violence by the Nigeria Police, four years after the October 2020 #EndSARS protest.
Sanusi added, “The Nigerian authorities still have the opportunity to reform the police and make it an institution with zero tolerance for human rights violations. The opportunity must not be allowed to slip away by the failure to hold the police to account for human rights violations. Gradually, we are returning to the horrific pre-EndSARS days when the police behaved as if they had the carte blanche to violate human rights.”
However, the spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, Benjamin Hundeyin, while defending the dispersal of the protesters, said the police had to prevent traffic disruption at the Lekki Toll Gate.
“They were told to disperse, but they were adamant; we had to use minimal force to disperse them,” Hundeyin told reporters.
Hundeyin confirmed later in a post on X on Sunday that the arrested protesters had been released.
“All protesters in our custody have been released. CP Olanrewaju Ishola was on the ground at the SCID to personally see to that,” Hundeyin wrote.
