Police arrest ‘price hike’ protesters in Lagos

Many arrested after police break up protests against price hike in Lagos

Protest against fuel price hike in parts of Lagos was disrupted by security agents on Thursday with some of the protesters arrested in the course of the protest.

Daily Trust reports that the protest organized by the Socialist Party of Nigeria, (SPN) started from Yaba with protesters marching towards Surulere and Ojuelegba.

But the protesters met stiff resistance from the Police and officers of the Department of State Security (DSS) who allegedly arrested some of the protesters including journalists covering the protest.

A member of the SPN who was part of the protest said about 30 security vehicles were mobilized at Yaba to disperse the protesters.

“Some of us changed the tactics to go through Ojuelegba but they (the security agencies) were there waiting for us. The officers are very brutal, they seem to be well prepared for us,” he said.

Rights groups oppose arrests

Secretary of the Joint Action Forum (JAF), Abiodun Aremu, in a statement confirmed the arrest of some of the protesters.

Those arrested included the SPN National Secretary, Chinedu Bosah, Daga Tolar, Hassan Soweto, as well as some journalists.

Aremu said, “The attention of the Joint Action Front (JAF) has  just been drawn to the illegal arrest of several comrades of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) by police and security operatives of the Area C Command. Journalists who were covering the event were also arrested alongside the leaders and members of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) for protesting  this morning against fuel price hike, electricity tariff and the deregistration of SPN.

The arrested include Comrades Ayo Ademiluyi,   Duro, Engels, Davinovich and several others.

JAF hereby demands the immediate and unconditional release of all the arrested comrades and the journalists who did no wrong exercising their legitimate and constitutional rights of expression and protest.”

Also, the International Press Centre (IPC) Lagos-Nigeria, condemned the unlawful arrest of four journalists, Ifeoluwa Adediran of Premium Times, Abiodun Ayeoba of Sahara Reporters, Awoniyi Oluwatosin of Objective Media and Daniel Tanimu of Galaxy Television early today, September 10, 2020, while covering a peaceful protest on the fuel price increase in Yaba, Lagos State.

Spokesperson for the organizers of the protest – the Socialist Party of Nigeria – Comrade Hassan Soweto, who was equally arrested confirmed that, “The cameras and phones of the journalists were seized while they were taken to the Lagos State Police Command.”

The IPC in a statement by its Programme Officer/Safety Desk Officer, Melody Akinjiyan  disapproved the harassment and brutalization of the journalists in the course of legitimate duty and particularly decries the seizure and damage to their working tools.

It said, “IPC demands the immediate and unconditional release of the journalists. The police should also return their seized gadgets and pay compensation for the damaged ones.

IPC reiterates that the right to peacefully assemble and ventilate grievances over government policies is covered by the laws of the federation and should not be tampered with arbitrarily.”