The Lagos State Police Command has explained why its operatives uses tear gas canisters to disperse a crowd that had gathered at Lekki Tollgate for candlelight procession in honour of the late singer Ilerioluwa Aloba, professionally known as Mohbad.
The candlelight procession, which took place on Thursday, September 21, was attended by numerous fans, friends, and fellow artists.
However, it reportedly escalated into chaos when the police intervened to disperse the crowd.
In response to this incident on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Benjamin Hundeyin, on Friday, referred the reports as “false narrative.”
According to him, the organisers of the candle light procession was instructed to end the procession at 8 pm latest and should terminate at Muri Okunola, Victoria Island, adding that “it became disconcerting that after the procession duly ended at Muri Okunola park as agreed, with the police providing optimal security all through, some persons started gathering at the Lekki Toll Gate with intent to manifest objectives extraneous to the #justiceforMohbad initiative”.
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“Being a clear violation of the laid down agreement, the Lagos State Police Command invited the procession organizers who came back and joined the officers on ground in persuading the people at the toll gate to disperse peacefully.
“The organisers equally sent out messages on social media asking everyone to go home, clarifying in clear terms that it was not a protest but a procession which had been successfully concluded.
“This persuasion and appeal went on for hours, to which the police and organizers met defiance, both in words and action. At this point, all lanes in and out of Lekki had been totally blocked.
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“Vehicular movement on the ever-busy expressway had been brought to a total standstill, leading to traffic build up. Having gone down this road before, having learnt from previous similar encounters, and having studied the pattern in the crowd, the red flags and early warning signs of total chaos and anarchy were discernible.
“Therefore, in fulfillment of our mandate to protect life and property, maintain law and order and prevent crimes, we adopted the least harmful method of crowd dispersal, following the failure of verbal persuasion – the use of teargas. Not a single live ammunition was fired! The police adopted crowd management best practices in engaging the unruly crowd. No life was lost neither was there any injury,” he added.