Lekki Tollgate arrest signals relapse of democracy
Abimbola Abatta, Osogbo
The February 13th, Lekki Tollgate arrest has been condemned by several human rights activists and Nigerians who described it as a sign of the deterioration of democracy in Nigeria.
On Saturday, February 13, 2021, young Nigerians, under the auspices of ‘EndSARS protesters’ flooded Lekki Tollgate Plaza in Lagos State to express their dissatisfaction with the reopening of the Lekki Tollgate Plaza in the State.
At the protest ground, however, popular comedian, Debo Adebayo, widely known as Mr Macaroni, was arrested, stripped naked, and beaten by security agencies alongside 39 other peaceful protesters.
The peaceful protesters were thrown into police vans and consequently arraigned before a mobile court in Yaba for conspiracy, conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace, and violation of COVID-19 protocols.
Nigerians who were outraged by the arrest said it was part of the Federal Government’s plan to suppress the protest.
Although the forty protesters were later released on bail, it was gathered that they would appear before the court on March 2, 2021.
In their separate remarks, the activists condemned, in totality, the federal government’s action which infringed on the fundamental rights of the protesters.
An NGO, Advocacy for Advancement of Peace & Harmony in Africa Initiative (ADAPHAI) said the Buhari-led administration is becoming more dictatorial by the day, and also dragging Nigeria back to the era of suffocating military junta.
This is just as the group condemned the unlawful arrest of peaceful protesters at the Lekki Tollgate, saying it signals “a fast retrogression of democracy.”
A statement signed by the Executive Director of the group, Comrade Olaniyi Ajibola reads in part: “The arrest and humiliation of peaceful protesters at Lekki Tollgate today is not only undemocratic but signalled a fast retrogression of our fledgeling democracy, this government is becoming unapologetically autocratic.
“President Muhammadu Buhari must be quickly called to order by the international community before collapsing this entity.”
On his part, a human rights activist and chairman of Osun Civil Societies Coalition, Comrade Waheed Lawal, described the arrest as unfortunate, saying it will not augur well for democracy in Nigeria.
Maintaining that a leaderless struggle is not a struggle, Lawal charged the protesters to choose a leader to prevent hijackers.
Waheed said, “It is their fundamental right to protest. What the government should have done is to provide security for them so that hoodlums will not hijack it.
“What happened in the last EndSARS protest must not be allowed to happen again. Any struggle must have leadership. A struggle that is leaderless is not a struggle because anybody can come out and hijack the protest.
“What happened is unfortunate. It is unfortunate in the sense that it is the fundamental right of every Nigerian to protest. Arresting and detaining them does not augur well for our national democracy.”
A civil rights group, the Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ) said the Lagos State police action against the peaceful protesters was unconstitutional.
The executive chairman of the group, Comrade Sulaiman Adeniyi said the act of using the military or police to stop peaceful protests in a democracy is “an aberration, abomination, unlawful, illegal, unconstitutional, undemocratic and a crime against humanity”.
In his words, “What Lagos State police are doing is uncalled-for. It’s illegal. They have to sue the Nigerian Police to court by the virtue of Section 35(6) of 1999 constitution to let them tender the public apology and compensation for those people they arrested because it is uncalled-for, is not the part of the democracy that we fought for.”
