#LekkiProtest: Security operatives arrest, detain 18 protesters at Lekki tollgate

February 13, 2021

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No fewer than 18 protesters have been arrested by security operatives at the Lekki toll gate on Saturday.

One of the coordinators of #OccupyLekkiTollgate, Kunle Ajayi, was quoted by Punch Newspaper as confirming this.

Ajayi says that the protesters were detained in a black maria and are about to be taken to an unknown location.

“Police have just arrested 10 protesters – Four ladies and six guys. They were beaten mercilessly and injured,” he said.

Punch confirms that Juwon Sanya-Olu and one Comrade Dimeji were among the 18 arrested protesters.

In a video, one of the arrested protesters said, “We have been arrested. Over 10 of us. We are kept in a Black Maria stationed at the toll gate now.”

The Federal Government and the police had earlier warned youths who planned to protest at the Lekki tollgate on Saturday (today) to have a rethink and shelve the protests.

But the young Nigerians, under the aegis of #EndSARS Season 2 and #OccupyLekkiTollgate, vowed to defy the government’s order.

The other group, #DefendLagos withdrew from the protest, noting that it was in accordance with the government’s directives that no protest should hold.

The #EndSARS Season 2 and #OccupyLekkiTollgate said their action was informed by the decision of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry allowing the Lekki Concession Company to reopen the Lekki tollgate.

The #EndSARS protests had spread across the country in October 2020 to register the youths’ grievances against the alleged atrocities of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force.

The protest, which gained massive international attention, came to a halt on October 20, 2020, when heavily armed soldiers allegedly shot protesters at the Lekki tollgate.