Lagos Police React to Reports It Banned Protest After Tinubu’s Broadcast

• The police in Lagos have warned media outlets against heating up the polity through the kind of news they share
• Benjamin Hundeyin, the police spokesperson in Lagos, who took to his X handle on Monday, August 5, pointed out that news headlines can be deceiving
• Legit.ng reports that President Bola Tinubu has appealed for protests to end after anti-hardship protests during dayslong demonstrations over the worsening cost of living crisis, but some protesters are adamant

Legit.ng journalist, Ridwan Adeola Yusuf, has over 9 years of experience covering public affairs.

Ojota, Lagos state - Peaceful protests against economic hardship in Lagos are not banned, according to the state's police command.

The Lagos state police public relations officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed this on Monday morning, August 5.

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'Don't heat up the polity' - Police

The police image maker, in a tweet-reply, described a news report that said the Lagos commissioner of police (CP), Adegoke Fayaode, banned the protest after President Bola Tinubu's broadcast, as "mischievous reportage".

Hundeyin wrote:

"How did ‘ban’ enter this matter? This is mischievous reportage.

"Trust the headline at your own peril. Do well to listen yourself.

"AIT should not join some media houses to sensationalise issues and end up heating up the polity."

Legit.ng reports that inspired by protests in Kenya in June that led to the government there scrapping some planned tax increases, some Nigerians mobilised online to demand effective governance.

Protesters demonstrated in the commercial capital Lagos, the Nigerian capital city Abuja, and several other districts to express their displeasure with economic policies that have allegedly increased hardship.

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On Monday morning, August 5, CP Fayaode led his men to Ojota, the centre of the Lagos protests.

The police boss is on the ground with his men patrolling the park.

'Peaceful protest is allowed' - Lagos governorship hopeful

Meanwhile, reacting to the government’s antagonism of the protest, Tope AbdurRazaq Balogun, the candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) in Lagos state during the 2023 election, said profiling people and making a protest to be a subject of national discourse “is enough a reason to classify the government admittance to be performing below par”.

Balogun told Legit.ng:

“Peaceful protest is allowed in any form of democracy and until it is established that it is not peaceful. Protest remains a viable democratic tool of advocating for good governance and should not be antagonised through profiling people as unpatriotic, tribalists, or anarchists, among other labels.”

Read more on Nigeria's protests

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• End Bad Governance: Pro-protest lawyer tells Tinubu what to do to ‘quell anger’

Protests: Tinubu speaks on alleged political plots

Earlier, Legit.ng reported that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu asked #EndBadGovernance protest organisers not to allow themselves to be 'used by a few with a political agenda'.

In a nationwide broadcast monitored by Legit.ng, the president described their actions as "violent" and expressed concern over the loss of lives, particularly among young Nigerians. He acknowledged the protesters' desire for a better country but condemned the destruction and looting that has occurred.

Source: Legit.ng