The Centre for Human and Socio-Economic Rights (CHSR)  has sought for an independent investigation into the use of cannisters against protesters displaced by ongoing demolition at the Lagos State House of Assembly on Wednesday.

The President of the group, Alex Omotehinse, made this known in a statement in Lagos on Thursday.

The residents are displaced by ongoing demolitions in communities included those of Makoko, Oworonshoki, Otumara, and Baba Ijora.

The protesters carried placards with inscriptions  such as “Stop the demolitions,” “Stop punishing the poor,” and  “Our lives also  matter.”

After the incident, Assistant Executive Director, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Zikora Ibeh, accused the police of arresting scores of protesters, including a  youth leader, Hassan Taiwo (Soweto).

Mr Ibeh condemned the alleged detention of some protesters by the police and firing of canisters of teargas to disperse the others.

He also alleged that lawmakers watched as protesters were dragged on the ground and maltreated by  policemen at the complex.

However, the Spokesman for the Assembly, Stephen Ogundipe, in a statement after the incident, distanced members of the House from an alleged order to fire tear gas and arrest of protesters at the Assembly gate on Wednesday.

Mr Ogundipe, representing Oshodi-Isolo Constituency-01, on WhatsApp, said the protesters flatly rejected dialogue at the gate and insisted on gaining access into the Assembly complex.

According to him, during the engagement, the individual who identified himself as Taiwo Hassan (alias Hassan Soweto) became openly confrontational and verbally abusive.

Reacting, Mr Omotehinse in a statement, also called for the immediate and unconditional release of Hassan Soweto and all other arrested protesters and the seized musical truck.

Mr Omotehinse condemned the misleading rejoinder issued by the Lagos Assembly, regarding the brutal suppression of peaceful protesters at the Assembly complex.

“CHSR finds it unconscionable that a state actor that was elected to represent his people would attempt to rewrite this episode by blaming victims for the violence unleashed upon them in his presence.

“The use of force was neither preventive nor proportionate, it was punitive, excessive, and wholly inconsistent with democratic norms. Contrary to the fabricated claims made by the Lagos Assembly, at no time did protesters attempt to forcefully gain entrance into the complex.

“We have enough media, eyewitnesses, independent observers, and video evidence clearly established that the protest was peaceful, orderly, and non-violent.

“The protesters, many of whom are elderly men and women, already rendered homeless and dehumanised by ongoing demolitions were exercising their constitutional right to peaceful assembly,” he said.

The activist said CHSR stood firmly with displaced communities, peaceful protesters, and all Nigerians demanding dignity, accountability, and the right to be heard, adding that justice cannot be teargassed and truth cannot be arrested.

Mr Omotehinse said Hassan Taiwo, popularly known as Soweto and other civil society organisations leaders present at the protest ground repeatedly addressed the protesters, urging calm and discipline.

He said at a critical moment, they directed protesters to sit on the floor peacefully, while arrangements were being made to distribute gala and sachet water, adding that this act alone dismantled the false narrative of an “unruly” or “violent” protest.

Mr Omotehinse said it was in the midst of this peaceful assembly that security operatives launched a barbaric attack, deploying teargas against unarmed citizens many of them aged, displaced, and traumatized by forced evictions

The activist said they all scampered for safety as the police continue alledgely shooting teargas repeatedly and direct to them.

“While the Assembly may seeks to distance itself from police actions, it cannot absolve itself of moral responsibility, when citizens are attacked at the gate of the people’s parliament, silence, deflection, or bureaucratic excuses amount to complicity.

“The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999, as amended) guarantees the right to peaceful assembly, that right does not go on recess.

“It is in public domen that the Lagos Assembly members few days ago was reported that in one of its  plenary seating unanimously agrees and all the 40 members endorsed and support the ongoing demolition in Makoko and its environs,

“Therefore for the Assembly to deny what happened in his presence is not a surprise to us in CHSR,” he said.

Mr Omotehinse said the protesters called for public retraction of misleading statements credited to Lagos Assembly aimed at justifying repression and distorting the truth. 

(NAN)