Angry youth protest against lockdown, attack policemen

Fifty-one suspects were arrested after some protesters attacked five policemen in Lagos state on Monday morning.

The protest held in Eleko community, Ibeju-Lekki local government area of the state.

Some youth had protested against the shut down of a construction site in the area following the lockdown ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari.

In an interview with TheCable, Bala Elkana, spokesman of the state police command, said the protesters are workers of a construction site in the Lekki Free Trade zone.

He said they were expressing annoyance over their inability to work as a result of the lockdown.

Elkana said the youth deployed violence during the process, leading to the attack against five policemen.

He said 51 suspects have been arrested and will soon be charged to court.

“They were protesting that their construction site was shut down at Lekki Free Trade zone. They were working there and the place was shutdown, so that was their annoyance. They are protesting because they want to work and make some money,” he said.

“Some of the sites were carrying out some skeletal services and because of COVID-19, they reduced the number of personnel that would work there because they can’t congest the place.

“So those youth just mobilised and accumulated their anger and they went violent. But we quickly responded. We sent our anti-riot unit to that area and the situation was brought under control.

“They injured five police officers but they are fine. We have arrested 51 suspects. We are investigating and the suspects would soon be in court.”

On March 30, President Muhammadu Buhari locked down Lagos, Ogun and the federal capital territory to contain the spread of coronavirus.

The president later extended the lockdown by another two weeks to further check the spread of the disease. He extended it by a week on Monday.