Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has condemned the arrest of some protesters by the police in the Lekki area of Lagos State.
In a statement on Saturday following the arrest of youths who breached security at the Lekki tollgate, he decried that the police abandoned their responsibility of protecting the protesters.
“The 1999 Nigerian Constitution, as amended (Section 40) guarantees the right of citizens to peaceful protest; the courts have also affirmed that right, anything contrary to that is not acceptable and stands condemned,” said Atiku who was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He added, “It is the security agents’ responsibility to provide a secured conducive environment for citizens to protest peaceably, in line with constitutional provisions and the African Charter on Human rights.”
Atiku’s reaction is one of several others who insisted that the arrest of the youth by the police stands condemned although there also many other Nigerians who lambasted both media, legal and civil society support the arrested youths got for doing what is wrong, having been established that government’s toleration of them in the first #EndSARS protest was termed by the same supporters of the second wave as incompetent.
They were said to stage the protest a week after the Lagos State Judicial Panel granted the Lekki Concession Company (LCC) the approval to repossess the toll gate.
This informed the decision of the youths to stage a protest, which was met with stiff resistance by the security personnel on the ground.
Several of them were arrested at the protest venue by the police, including popular comedian Mr. Macaroni.
The unfortunate thing is that, some people would be counting arrest such as this as crime of Nigeria to justify a file at International Criminal Court (ICC) “but we are waiting for them as usual”, a Nigerian said.
