The Lagos Police Commissioner, Hakeem Odumosu, has revealed the reasons the state’s security operatives dispersed the June 12 protesters with teargas on Democracy Day.

WUZUPNIGERIA reported earlier that the protesters who gathered at the Gani Fawehinmi Park in the Ojota area of the state were dispersed by the police who fired teargas canisters and gunshots into the air.

Reacting during an interview uploaded by Pulse TV on Twitter following the police clampdown on protesters, Odumosu claimed that they took the action after discovering that miscreants, not protesters, blocked the road and infiltrated the protests.

He added that dispersing the protesters was necessary having considered the economic, psychological and security effects of the action.

“The road was blocked, we had video evidence. They blocked the road and the traffic has extended to Odo Iya Alaro going towards Maryland, They equally barricaded the road with tyres… those coming to Lagos and those going outside cannot move.

“And I know very well that it is not those who are protesting with genuine interest that did that, so the miscreants within Ikeja here must have been those that masterminded that and infiltrated the protesters.

“So I said the minimum force was to liberate the road. We liberated the road, nobody injured. Even they said five people were arrested, we released everybody immediately and nobody in police custody.

“We just want the road to be liberated so that people could move. You know Lagos is commercial centre, anything that happens in Lagos now doesn’t stop in Lagos.

“We know the economic effects of that, we know the psychological effects, we know the security message, that’s why we liberated the road. We only liberated the road for people to move about their normal business.. and that has been going on,” he said.