The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun, said on Tuesday that the police, military, and other agencies tasked with managing the #EndBadGovernance protest did not resort to excessive force against the demonstrators.
He said neither the military nor police utilized live ammunition during the demonstrations.
Contrary to claims, the IGP claims that attacks on security personnel deployed to manage the protests occurred, not the other way around.
He made this disclosure at a meeting of security agency heads in Abuja.
Egbetokun said: “The police and the military, and indeed no other security agency involved in the management of this protest, have deployed excessive use of force.
“Instead, what we had were attacks on security agents during the protest. From our records, there were no shooting incidents by the police.
“The police or military did not use any live ammunition in the management of these protests. Instead, we have had cases where our officers were injured and are in critical condition as we speak.
“I will dismiss that as fake news and very wrong allegations. We didn’t use excessive force at all.
“We didn’t even deploy the whole of our strength in this protest, even when it turned violent.
“We have water cannons we did not deploy; we have rubber bullets we didn’t use. All that we have used is tear gas and nothing more.”
Egbetokun further said that the police effectively managed their resources during the protests and, in fact, took advantage of the situation to apprehend numerous other criminals.
He said other criminal activities were recorded during the protests, except for kidnapping.
Egbetokun said: “We were not overstretched; we had standby units that we didn’t deploy in managing this protest. Even while the protests were going on, a number of them were arrested.
“Hoodlums who committed armed robbery were arrested. The only thing we didn’t have was kidnapping. But any other offence that was committed, we paid due attention to those criminal activities.”
He clarified that protesters in Kaduna State did not seize any Armoured Personnel Carriers.
He said: “The situation in Kaduna is that we didn’t even deploy APC for the protest.
The APC you saw was deployed to the Government House in Kaduna. Protesters went to the gate, and as the driver was driving out, those protesters climbed the APC.
“And what the driver did was to make a U-turn and go back to the front of the Government House gate. It wasn’t a case of hijacking APC.”
On the police presence at the Abuja stadium, the IG explained that officers were deployed to safeguard the rights of peaceful protesters and maintain order.
He said: “We didn’t take over the stadium; we provided security there. We assured those who approached us and told us about their intentions to stage peaceful protests.
“We asked them to go to a particular location, and that if they went there, we would provide security.
“We have said on several occasions that we recognise the rights of citizens to protest peacefully and that for as long as they remain peaceful, the police will be there with them. We didn’t take over the stadium.”
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