#June12 Protest: Police Disperse Protesters with Teargas in Calabar

The police in Cross River State dispersed a group of protesters in Calabar, firing teargas at them, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported.

The incident happened around the Rabbana Roundabout and Atekong Junction on Saturday.

The security operatives, who were masked, rode into the areas in vehicles belonging to Operation Akpakwu.

The protesters carried placards with inscriptions such as: “Ayade pay owed salaries and pensions”, “Ayade fix our roads”, “Ayade change your style of governance”.

One of the protesters, Timothy Ushang, told NAN in an interview that the protest was going on peacefully when the police operatives fired tear gas canisters at them.

According to him, the essence of the protest was to draw the government’s attention to areas that needed urgent intervention in the state.

Another protester, Dominic Akan, told NAN that it was their constitutional right to protest peacefully.

“We don’t know why security operatives used tear gas on us during the peaceful protest. We are protesting against bad governance and things that have gone bad in the state.

“Our fathers and mothers have been owed pensions and gratuities for a long period of time, our roads are bad; these are some of the things that we need the governor to address urgently,” he said.