Occupy Lekki: Police order men to remain at tollgate indefinitely

The Lagos State Police Command on Sunday said policemen would be stationed at the Lekki tollgate until further notice.

Recall that there was a crackdown on the #OcuppyLekkiTollgate protesters at the tollgate on Saturday, during which about 40 persons were arrested.

They protested against the decision of the Lagos Judicial Panel of Inquiry to return the tollgate to the Lekki Concession Company.

The arrested persons, including popular comedian, Debo Adebayo, aka Mr Macaroni, were said to have been granted bail after the police arraigned them at a mobile court sitting at the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Panti, Yaba, for “creating tension and behaving in such a manner that could cause breach of public peace.”

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, said policemen had been deployed to five locations in the state, asides from the Lekki tollgate, adding that they would remain at the locations until further notice.

He said, “Our policemen are still at the tollgate, it is a deployment and we are working with an operation order and until there is a stand down order of the operation from the Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, the men will still be there. We have not arrested anyone today (Sunday), there was no breakdown of law and order, no gathering or procession, everything is normal in the area.

“But we are still maintaining our ground there and we have deployment in about five places aside from the Lekki tollgate and our men are still on standby at these strategic places. We have police deployment in Unity Park, Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ogombo Junction, Adeniran Ogunsanya Junction, among others.”

Meanwhile, the command condemned the inhumane acts against some of the individuals arrested during the protest.

Adejobi, said in a statement on Sunday that the officer-in-charge of the SCID, DCP Adegoke Fayoade, had been ordered to analyse the trending video showing the arrested suspects being subjected to dehumanising conditions.

Adejobi said, “The state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, who was piqued by this unprofessional and inhuman act, has ordered the Deputy Commissioner of Police, State CID, Panti, DCP Adegoke Fayoade, to analyse the video and bring to book whoever that must have been responsible for the act.

“CP Hakeem Odumosu reiterates that, inasmuch as the command is resolute in enforcing all laws in the state, it will not deviate from the Standard Operating Procedure of the Nigeria Police Force and provisions of the law in discharging its duties; noting that the command will fish out those responsible for the molestation and ensure they are punished for their unprofessional conduct.”

In a related development, one inspector A. O. Alaka, attached to the Lagos State Police Command, has allegedly arrested and harassed some ladies in a commercial bus for commenting over the #OccupyLekki protest.

It was gathered that the ladies, who were in the same bus with the policeman on Saturday condemned the attack on protesters at the Lekki tollgate.

However, when one of the ladies, identified as Chika Eze, wanted to alight from the bus at the Maryland bus stop, the policeman, who sat in front of the bus restricted her and ordered her two other friends to come down from the bus.