By Miftaudeen Raji
Vice Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Senator Yusuf Datti-Baba Ahmed has disagreed that his party is a beneficiary of the #EndSARS protest of the October 20, 2020.
Datti-Baba Ahmed made this assertion in an interview with Politics Today on Channels TV on Thursday.
According to Datti-Baba Ahmed, is ‘heavy’ to say that the Labour Party is a beneficiary of the #EndSARS protest.
He said, “It’s a very statement to make, saying that our party, Labour Party is a beneficiary of EndSARS. While we are always on the side of the people, on side of good governance, we are against attrition, we are against repression and all those.
“You may be more correct to put it in another way, but we are not direct beneficiaries of EndSARS. The use of the word massacre is highly debatable. We never wanted EndSARS to happen. We never any Nigerians whatsoever to be attcked. Accordingly, we are not happy for anybody to say we are beneficiaries of EndSARS.
“We benefit from a peaceful Nigeria. That is what we benefit from. We benefit from progress and development. We are about correcting all the mistakes of bad governance,” he said.
Recall that protesters staged a procession on Thursday to mark the second anniversary of the #EndSARS protest of Octobor 20, 2020.
But, the police fired tear gas and water canos to disperse the protesters, who converged at the Lekki toll-gate for the EndSARS memorial.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Police Command has explained reasons its officials tear-gassed and arrested protesters at the #EndSARS memorial procession at the Lekki Toll Gate plaza.
Police Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Police Command, Benjamin Hundeyin while speaking in an interview on Channels TV on Thursday, said the police tear-gassed and arrested some ‘trouble makers,’ who wanted to breech the peace of the state.
According to Hundeyin, the procession had stopped and traffic was building at the toll-gate.
He stated that the police had to fire tear gas to disperse the crowd in order to relieve traffic at the spot.
He said, “Everything was going fine until they stopped and started laying the coffins on the ground and all. They were doing all these and traffic at the toll gate was building.
“We needed to ensure that there was free flow of traffic in the area, because the agreement was that the procession would not stop, that was why we fired tear gas. After the crowd was dispersed, no single canister of tear gas was fired again.
“Right now there is free flow of traffic in the area and calm has been restored,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Police PPRO said the protesters that were locked up in the black maria truck have all been released.
He said, “Some trouble makers wanted to breech the peace in the area so they were picked up and locked up in the van. But after everything had calmed down and the protesters dispersed they were all released. I can confirm that we have no one in our custody at the toll-gate now.”
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