Security operatives in Abuja on Saturday arrested a freelance journalist, Ayoola Babalola, and an unspecified number of protesters.
The development came as protesters expressing their concerns over the country’s economic hardship trooped to the MKO Abiola National Stadium in Abuja on the third day of the nationwide protests, which began on Thursday.
Babalola posted his arrest on WhatsApp after security operatives fired at protesters and journalists.
Earlier, a Punch correspondent described how he and other journalists narrowly avoided gunfire, with bullets pelting a Premium Times journalist’s car.
Babalola, a former Peoples Gazette reporter, posted on his WhatsApp status, noting that he was apprehended alongside six others, including one Mr. Samuel Victor.
He said: “I have been arrested, comrades. I’m being held at Wuye Police Station. We are standing our ground and not releasing our devices. They are taking our phones and taking us to the cell now.”
Contacted, the FCT Police Public Relations Officer, SP Josephine Adeh, said she was making efforts to get Babalola and others released.
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