Isaiah Oladejo was arrested by fully-armed policemen at the Lagos leg of the June 12 protests that were held in many states of the country on Saturday.
FIJ witnessed the exact moment Ugo Nnakwe, the Team Lead of the Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU) of the Nigeria Police Force, handpicked Oladejo from the midst of journalists covering the demonstration at Ojota and handed him over to other policemen on surveillance.
It was Oladejo’s arrest at about 9:30 am on Saturday that sparked the reaction of the protesters before the police began to shoot tear gas canisters in order to disperse everyone. Protesters fled while the reporters took cover at various places, including a nearby toilet.
“I was dragged into their van,” Oladejo told FIJ. “They beat me with a small stick and even when I begged them to release me, they asked me to stay back, as only the commissioner could order if they should release me or not.
As the young Nigerian would later say, he was released on the orders of Hakeem Odumosu, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police.
“I later heard that the commissioner ordered them to release the two of us whom they picked. I can say I spent up to 30 minutes at the back of their van.”
Nigerians’ rights to protest are safeguarded in sections 38, 39, 40 and 41 of the Constitution, so Oladejo was permitted by law to be at the protest ground to exercise this fundamental human right.
Lagos, Nigeria
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