On Tuesday, armed police fired tear gas at people gathered at Lagos’s Lekki Toll Gate to mark the sixth anniversary of the #EndSARS protests against police brutality.<\/p>\n
Among those present were the ADC and NDC governorship candidates in Lagos, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and Funso Doherty. Both moved away from the scene after the gas was fired to break up the crowd.<\/p>\n
The toll gate has become the defining symbol of the protest movement, because of what happened there on October 20, 2020, when security operatives opened fire on demonstrators demanding an end to abuses by the police, particularly the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad. Thousands of young Nigerians had taken to the streets nationwide in the weeks before.<\/p>\n
Anniversary gatherings at the site have been disrupted before. In past years, participants were reportedly arrested and brutalised.<\/p>\n
Tuesday’s incident has renewed concerns about how peaceful protests are handled, and about the treatment of Nigerians who simply want to remember the victims of police brutality. Families of victims still see the toll gate as a place of mourning, and the reported killings by soldiers, police officers and other security operatives in 2020 continue to drive public anger and demands for accountability.<\/p>\n
Activists and civil society organisations have used the sixth anniversary to repeat their calls: justice for victims, investigations into alleged abuses by security agencies, and measures to prevent similar incidents in future.<\/p>\n
The Lagos State Police Command had not commented at the time of the report. Its Public Relations Officer, SP Abimbola Adebisi, did not answer calls<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Tuesday, armed police fired tear gas at people gathered at Lagos’s Lekki Toll Gate to mark the sixth anniversary of the #EndSARS protests against police brutality. Among those present were the ADC and...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t