By Aiyeku Timothy
An aide to the President Muhammadu Buhari, Lauretta Onochie, has hailed the conduct of the Nigeria Police Force in the handling of the #OccupyLekkiTollGate protest in Lagos on Saturday.
Onochie on her social media page, gave kudos to the Force for not hurting anyone in a bid to stopping the protest.
In her tweet on Sunday, she said “Kudos to the @PoliceNG for the professional manner it operated at Lekki yesterday. Nobody was hurt.”
She added, “Best of all, no police officer was killed nor roasted and eaten. We must applaud you for doing well so that you can take our criticisms of your shortcomings in good faith. Thank you.”
Meanwhile, the #OccupyLekkiTollGate protest was staged against the decision of the Lagos Judicial Panel of Inquiry and Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses & Lekki Toll Gate Incident to have the Lekki tollgate reopened under the control of the Lekki Concession Company.
The protesters say the tollgate ought to remain under no control until justice is done regarding the lives allegedly lost when soldiers of the Nigerian Army opened fire during the #EndSARS protest on October 20, 2020.
Authorities had warned against the protest but the protesters continued, which led to the arrest of popular Nigerian comedian, Debo Adebayo, known as Mr Macaroni and thirty-nine others.
They were later granted bail and released some hours later. But Mr Macaroni said they were beaten and the officers threatened to kill them, after his relase.
“If the word was not out that people were already being arrested, people would have died. They were telling us that ‘we’ll shoot you and nothing will happen. If it was night, all of una for don die” he said in a video
He added that “They took us to Adeniji where we were beaten and stripped naked. Everyone was beaten. These people don’t care about anyone. Them beat me, saying I’ll get sense by force. They also destroyed my phone.”
