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Wednesday, October 20, 2021

#EndSARS: Protesters regroup after police crackdown

The protest which began peacefully became chaotic after the police fired teargas at the protesters whose numbers continued to swell as the demonstrations wore on.

• October 20, 2021

Demonstrators are regrouping around the Lekki Toll Gate towards Ajah to push back against repression by police officers who have unleashed terror to forcefully disperse them from the area, Peoples Gazette can report.

Several people were injured after police fired teargas at the protesters during a car procession through the tollgate to mark the one year anniversary of #EndSARS protests Wednesday morning.

The protest which began peacefully became chaotic after the police fired teargas at the protesters whose numbers continued to swell as the demonstrations wore on.

The melee resulted in protesters scampering away from the tollgate with burnt faces from the pungent shots as police sought to arrest any bystander into their waiting van.

But the protesters then regrouped to stage a resistance, The Gazette learnt.

“What is happening here is no longer police dispersing protests. It is police unleashing mayhem on peaceful protesters after being dispersed,” a witness told Peoples Gazette.

“Despite leaving the Lekki Toll Gate and even the main express roads for safety, police are still entering streets and corners chasing people firing teargas at every stop.”

The Gazette learnt that a Journalist with Foundation for Investigative Journalism who was arrested have been released by the state police commissioner Hakeem Odumosu.

The state government had earlier vowed to clamp down hard on any demonstrators.

However, many youths stormed the Lekki toll gate for a memorial of the October 20, 2020 protests where soldiers of the Nigerian Army opened liverounds on unarmed protesters.

In 2020, #EndSARS protests were held nationwide between October 8 to 20, calling for an end to police extortion, brutality, extrajudicial killings and abuse of power, and the disbandment of the criminal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). 

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