The Lagos state police command said to avoid a repeat of the EndSARS saga, it dispersed sympathisers who gathered at the Lekki Toll Gate to mourn the passing of late musician Ilerioluwa Aloba, known as Mohbad.
This was said in a statement signed by the Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, and made public on Friday on the verified page of the Lago State Police X (previously Twitter) page.
According to the statement, there was an agreement between the police and the march organisers not to utilise the Lekki Toll Gate as a place of assembly, which was followed throughout the parade but was afterwards breached by some people assembling there.
Hundeyin stated that the police and organisers’ efforts to convince the sympathisers assembled at the Lekki Toll Gate yielded no results, forcing the police to disperse them with teargas to safeguard lives and property in the vicinity.
The statement read:
“It is instructive to note that the Lagos State Police Command had an agreement with the organizers of the candlelight procession that the procession was to end at 8 pm latest and should terminate at Muri Okunola, Victoria Island. It was clearly stated for the avoidance of doubt that in the interest of all Lagosians and considering the heavy use of the Lekki-Epe Expressway, the Lekki Toll Gate would be a no-go area.
“It, however, became disconcerting that after the procession duly ended at Muri Okunola park as agreed, with the police providing optimal security all through, some persons started gathering at the Lekki Toll Gate with intent to manifest objectives extraneous to the #justiceforMohbad initiative.
“Being a clear violation of the laid down agreement, the Lagos State Police Command invited the procession organisers who came back and joined the officers on the ground in persuading the people at the toll gate to disperse peacefully. The organizers equally sent out messages on social media asking everyone to go home, clarifying in clear terms that it was not a protest but a procession that had been successfully concluded. This persuasion and appeal went on for hours, to which the police and organizers met defiance, both in words and action. At this point, all lanes in and out of Lekki had been totally blocked. Vehicular movement on the ever-busy expressway had been brought to a total standstill, leading to traffic build-up.
“Having gone down this road before, having learnt from previous similar encounters, and having studied the pattern in the crowd, the red flags and early warning signs of total chaos and anarchy were discernible. Therefore, in fulfillment of our mandate to protect life and property, maintain law and order, and prevent crimes, we adopted the least harmful method of crowd dispersal, following the failure of verbal persuasion – the use of teargas. Not a single live ammunition was fired! The police adopted crowd management best practices in engaging the unruly crowd. No life was lost neither was there any injury.”
cc: Punch Ng
