UNDETERRED by warnings of various state commands of the Nigeria Police against street protests, Nigerians, across the nation, on Wednesday, staged rallies, protests, processions and converged on various locations across the country in commemoration of the first year anniversary of what has been branded the October 20, 2020 massacre at Lekki tollgate, Lagos, which occurred during the #EndSARS protests that rocked the nation last year.
Braving the odds and huge security presence at the Lekki tollgate, protesters began to trickle in at about 8.00 a.m. with the police initially arresting two persons that included a journalist, Bisola Alawode.
However, the organisers of the #EndSARS memorial, including popular Nigerian rapper, Folarin Falana (Falz) and comedian, Mr Macaroni, made good their words on staging an #EndSARS memorial car procession when, at about 8.30 a.m, about 150 vehicles and motorcycles blaring horn unabatedly swooped on Lekki tollgate.
For hours, the convoy ran circles around the tollgate with drivers and occupants of the vehicles holding Nigerian flags while chanting #EndSARS, #EndSWAT, #EndPolicebrutality among various other messages to the Nigerian authorities.
Among their messages were calls on the Nigerian government to release those arrested in the wake of last year’s #EndSARS protests, an end to police brutality which they noted had persisted, an end to bad governance with lamentation about the high cost of living and call for equity and justice in the Nigerian system.
From several rounds of motorcade procession around the tollgate, the protest moved to vehicles staying at a point with protesters coming out to voice the messages on the occasion of the first year anniversary of the #EndSARS protests.
Pushing, dragging, arresting of persons ensued afterwards as security operatives battled to prevent the protesters from forming a crowd at the tollgate.
With the protesters staying resolute and the atmosphere becoming tense, security operatives resorted to shooting teargas canisters, as people ran in different directions.
Throughout the day, there was huge presence of armed police officers stationed especially at areas that served as protest grounds for last year’s #EndSARS protests.
As a result of the security presence, residents and shop owners went about their normal businesses without disruptions.
Some of the business owners who were victims of the looting that characterised the protests told Nigerian Tribune that while they still bore a psychological trauma, they had erected strong barricade to secure their stores.
Police describe 10 arrested protesters as miscreants
No fewer than 10 people were arrested as the armed policemen described them as ‘miscreants,’ saying that apart from defaulting on the agreed modalities between the organisers and the police for the conduct of the exercise, some of them were arrested with weapons.
The police also said the arrested journalist, Bisola Alawode, could not provide any form of identification at the venue but was later released on the order of the Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu.
Odumosu said, “We agreed that they should keep moving. Any vehicle that is abandoned, we will take them from here to protective custody.
“We arrested some people now with machetes. These are miscreants. Today is a working day. I called Tope who is one of the leaders, and he said by 10.00 a.m., they had left. I spoke with their leader who represented them at the panel, and he said they had left.
“Those cannot be protesters but hoodlums and that is why they were chased away so that peaceful citizens can go about with their lawful businesses.”
#EndSARS rallies rock Ibadan, Akure, Abuja, Yola, Benin, Osogbo
In commemorating the first year anniversary, the organisers had announced that the memorial events will also hold in Abuja, Ibadan, Aba, Port Harcourt, Yenagoa, Enugu, Yola, Benin, Jos, Osogbo, Asaba, Ilorin, among others.
In Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, scores of protesters moved around major streets, especially Iwo Road and Agodi before converging on the Oyo State government secretariat. Detachments of armed anti-riot policemen were stationed at strategic areas, including Mokola Roundabout, Sango, University of Ibadan, Agbowo junction, Dugbe and Secretariat to prevent breakdown of law and order.
In Akure, the Ondo State capital, youths held a peaceful memorial possession. Marching through the streets of Akure, in the presence of security agents, they walked through Oba-Adesida road, through NEPA roundabout and to the police headquarters in Igbatoro, where they tabled their demands to the government through the Commissioner of Police, Bolaji Salami.
The protesters decried that the Nigerian government had failed to address all the issues which led to the EndSARS protest, a year after. Tope Temokun, who led the protesters, bemoaned that one year after, no one had been brought to justice for the torture, violence, and killings of peaceful protesters.
Similar processions rocked the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, as protesters marched round the city.
The protest in Abuja started at the National Assembly but the protesters were denied access and chased away by the police and other security operatives.
Led by Omoyele Sowore, they, thereafter, moved round the town before converging on the Unity Fountain.
Earlier, one Adamu Kabiru had led a counter-protest to describe the Lekki tollgate incident as a hoax and “#ENDSARS as insurrection.
A social group, Take It Back Movement, led a peaceful commemorative rally in Yola, Adamawa State.
Leading the protest, Mr Tony Gompwel said Nigerian youths were resolute in their demand for justice and improved democracy.
In Osogbo, the Osun State capital, youths marched round the Ita-Olokan area, and condemned those in government of maladministration.
The protest recorded an incident where a journalist attached to Daily Post, an online publication, Sikiru Obarayese, was beaten up by police personnel for recording the activities.
He was later arraigned at an Osogbo magistrates’ court sitting. While arraigning him before the court, he was alleged to have breached the peace by taking a video recording of a divisional police officer and assaulting him, contrary to sections 249(5) and 356 of the Criminal Code Cap 34. Laws of Osun State.
Obarayese, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and the police prosecutor, Adeoye Kayode, prayed the magistrate to withdraw the case, citing order from the commissioner of police.
The presiding magistrate, A. O. Daramola, granted the request and struck out the case.
Speaking on the arrest, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Yemisi Opalola, said: “The officers who arrested him didn’t know he is a journalist. It was later that they knew. The commissioner of police has intervened and he has been released.”
Also, Edo youths, in their hundreds, gathered at the popular Oba Ovonramwen Square, popularly called Ring Road, Benin City, where they demanded for automatic employment for the victims of the protest in the state and the implementation of the report of the judicial panel that was set up by the state government.
In addition, they also requested that all those being held in various police detention cells, having been arrested in relation to the 2020 protest, be released unconditionally.
Unlike the chaos that characterised the 2020 protest, the Wednesday commemorative gathering was peaceful, though security personnel drawn from the Nigerian Police, Department of State Services (DSS), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and members of local vigilante were on ground to ensure peace while members of the Public Works Volunteers (PUWOV) controlled traffic while the protest lasted.
The star attraction at the march was the pitiable sight of two victims of the 2020 protest, Miracle Ailenokhoriah, a fashion designer, who has been bedridden as a result of gunshot to his right thigh and Stephen Asekhame, whose left leg was amputated as a result of gunshot from soldiers in Auchi.
PDP condemns renewed brutalisation of protesters
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) condemned what it called the sustained brutalisation of Nigerians by security forces, particularly bloody assault on youths during the memorial procession.
A statement issued by Kola Ologbondiyan, its national publicity secretary, said the party joined Nigerians across the country in remembering slain victims of the 2020 #EndSARS protests.
The statement added: “EndSARS has become the emblem of the resistance by Nigerians against the insensitive, incompetent corrupt, divisive and decadent APC administration that has brought so much anguish and pain to our dear nation.
“It is shocking that, despite the promises to stop brutality and restore good governance, Nigerians who came out to march in remembrance of the victims of last year’s brutality were made to face the same trauma, if not worse brutality in the hands of security operatives.”
One year after alleged massacre families of victims nowhere to be found —Lai Mohammed
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Wednesday insisted that what happened at the Lekki Toll Plaza on October 20, 2020, was a phantom massacre, as he said that one year after the incident, no families of alleged victims have surfaced to make their cases.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja to mark the first anniversary of the #EndSARS protests in which several persons were alleged to have been shot dead by the military, the minister maintained that the massacre took place only in the realm of the social media.
According to him, no body had been recovered, no convincing evidence provided and no families showed up at the judicial panels of inquiry set up to investigate the claims.
The minister blasted CNN and Amnesty International for continuing to insist that unarmed protesters were killed by the military who used live ammunition at the plaza.
“Recall, gentlemen, that after bandying different figures, Amnesty International finally settled at about 12 people killed. On its part, CNN went from 38 people killed to two to just one, after a supposed global exclusive even when the network had no reporter on ground at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020,” he said.
According to the minister, the testimony of ballistic experts before the judicial panel of inquiry in Lagos contradicted what he called “the tales by the moonlight by Amnesty International, CNN, a runaway DJ and their ilk.”
He added that, “The six soldiers and 37 policemen who died during the EndSARS protests are human beings with families, even though the human rights organisations and CNN simply ignored their deaths, choosing instead to trumpet a phantom massacre.”
The minister also highlighted the measures taken by the National Economic Council (NEC) to address the issues relating to the #EndSARS agitation including payment of compensation, prosecution of indicted persons (security personnel and civilians), and improved efficiency of Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies’ architecture.
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FG receives final reports of inquiry from 11 states
The Federal Government on Wednesday said 11 out of 28 states have submitted their respective final reports of judicial panel of inquiry into the 2020 EndSARS protest and its aftermaths.
Mohammed listed the states which had submitted the report to the National Economic Council (NEC) as Abia, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Kwara, Nasarawa, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Plateau, and Rivers.
The minister said while the governors of other states had indicated that their reports would be submitted soon, modalities had been established for the settlement of all monetary compensations awarded by the panels.
Insurance companies pay N9bn of possible N20bn #EndSARS claims
Insurance companies will eventually pay about N20 billion in compensations to losses recorded at the October 2020 #EndSARS protests.
Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday, chairman of the Nigeria Insurance Association (NIA), Mr Ganiyu Musa, said the companies had paid claims totalling N9 billion already.
NIA said in a report issued on Monday that the insurance companies settled claims on 718 cases of vandalism, 93 cases of looting, 113 cases of theft and 136 cases of loss of cash.
The report also stated that 99 claims were settled on malicious damage; eight on business interruptions, 455 on burglary and 912 cases were settled on fire and burnt sites in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protest.
He stressed that by the time claimants submit all the necessary documentation, the industry would be settling claims of about N20 billion.
Musa, managing director of one of the insurance companies, said estimated economic loss to the protest was more than N200 billion but not all the losses were insured.
NANS frowns on states yet to set up panel
National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has frowned at state governments yet to set up panel of inquiry on the alleged police brutally one year after the #EndSARS Protest in some parts of the country.
NANS President, Comrade Sunday Asefon, on Wednesday described the attitude of state governors as undemocratic and called on the affected states to, as a matter of urgency, yield to this call by constituting the panel immediately in compliance with the directive of the Federal Government.
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