Yoruba Nation: Defiant Agitators Confront Police in Lagos

By Segun James

In defiance of the warning against the holding any rally in Lagos state, agitators for Yoruba Nation, attempted to converge at the Gani Fawehinmi Park in Ojota area of Lagos but were prevented by security operatives who took over strategic areas of the state to forestall any breakdown of law and order.

Following the refusal of the agitators to disperse on police orders, shots were fired and watercaml was deployed to disperse them. Some of the agitators were seen being dragged into an armoured personnel carrier by policemen. There were however no reports of any injury or fatalities.

The agitators arrived soon after the state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, left. The rally however failed to hold, even as the few agitators who showed up were forced to leave the venue.

Odumosu who addressed journalists said the presence of security operatives at the Gani Fawehinmi Park in Ojota, Lagos, was the police command’s way of averting a breakdown of law and order in the state.

“We are just being security conscious and proactive,” he said, even as he recalled his warning on Thursday on why the rally must not hold.

“We learnt that some miscreants have perfected plans to seize the opportunity to cause mayhem in the society. Though the organisers of the rally made frantic efforts to say it will be peaceful, you and I know what happened during #EndSARS protests. EndSARS started peacefully but up till now, Lagos State has not been able to get out of the destruction that happened during the EndSARS,” he added.

He said many police stations were burnt down with officers’ lives lost during the protest in October 2020, adding that the state won’t allow a repeat of such incidents.

While Odumosu addressed newsmen, none of the separatist agitators were seen at the venue. “We are just being security conscious and proactive,” Odumosu insisted.

But no sooner had the police boss left, the agitators arrived, a situation which triggered a confrontation with the police, forcing the police to fire gunshots into the air and thw use of hot water cannons to disperse the agitators.

They dared the security operatives by displaying banners and distributing flyers to announce their arrival. Some of the agitators who spoke to newsmen stated that it qas time they had a separate nation for the Yoruba ethnic group because they didn’t have anything in common with the other tribes in Nigeria.