Police Fire Teargas At Participants Of #EndSARSMemorial

Officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) have shot teargas to disperse youths commemorating the memorial of the #EndSARS movement at Lekki tollgate, Lagos state.

The memorial rally was organised to mark the second anniversary of the shooting at the tollgate during the #EndSARs protest.

On Thursday morning, the youths walked through the tollgate axis singing dirge songs while carrying mock coffins to commemorate the October 20, 2020 incident.

The rally, tagged ‘peace walk’, took a turn for the worse as police officers shot teargas canisters to disperse the participants.

However Spokesman for the Lagos State Police Command, Benjamin Hundeyin, told Channels Television that some of the participants were “unruly” and climbed the top of the toll gate.

“That was not needed. You are doing a procession, just walk past. But these people now stopped there and climbed on the toll gate, becoming a nuisance, threatening to break down the existing law and order.

“We can’t stand there and watch them misbehave. The least we could do was to use teargas, any other thing apart from teargas will be more harmful.

“There is no record of injury. We only did our job and faced those who were unruly,” he said.

Some of the participants at the procession include popular comedian Debo Adebayo, also known as Mr Macaroni; and musician Folarin Falana, better known as Falz.

According to the organisers, the procession was to commemorate the second anniversary of the #EndSARS protest against police brutality and extrajudicial killings that rocked Lagos and parts of Nigeria in October 2020.

Scores of fully armed police officers were seen with about 25 patrol vans at the toll gate on Thursday.