A human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, says Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s government erred by clamping down on 40 #OccupyLekki protesters and charging them to court.

“Instead of threatening the protesters last Friday, what the Lagos state government ought to have done was to approach the court to say they did not want the protesters to congregate in or around Lekki toll gate, and the government would have to convince the court on why that should not happen,” Mr. Falana explained.

He stated this during a virtual discourse organised by ICIR on Thursday.

The protesters, including a popular entertainer, Debo Macaroni, were on Saturday summarily arraigned before a mobile court hours after being humiliated by police officers, who filmed and circulated their agony in a rickety Lagos metro bus on social media.

Charged with violating Lagos COVID-19 laws, the protesters were later granted N100,000 bail by Lateef Layeni, the mobile court magistrate, who adjourned the case until March 2 after taking their no-guilty plea.

He argued that the protesters did not need the permission of anyone to protest.

“You cannot put people inside a Black Maria and then drive them into a police detention centre, almost stripped naked. We saw some of the photographs. That is dehumanising. That is against the anti-torture law of 2017.

“What happened on Saturday was a litany of errors, serial violations of the human rights of the young men and women who were grabbed by the police and were charged before a mobile court that same day,” the lawyer explained.

“But from what I have said, the three count charges cannot stand. First and second, breach of peace: no peace was breached. Third, one breach of COVID-19 regulation. That was carried out by the government.”

On ensuring the safety of the protesters, he noted, “The Electoral Act was amended on March 27, 2015, to impose a duty on the police to protect protesters. Last year, the 2020 Police Act, section 83 subsection 4 equally provides that during protests, rallies or demonstrations, the police shall provide adequate security for the protesters. Unfortunately, that provision was breached by the police; hence you have the so-called hoodlums, hijacking the protest of last year.”

The youths decided to mobilise and return to occupy the toll plaza on February 13 after the Lagos judicial panel investigating police brutality cases voted to reopen it.

Nigerians sympathetic to the #EndSARS movement were appalled by the decision.

However, their demonstration was countered by policemen who immediately arrested anybody found around the tollgate’s vicinity on Saturday morning, including passerby.