The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has stated that the police and military did not use live ammunition during the recent #EndBadGovernance protests.
Egbetokun made this announcement at a meeting of security agency heads in Abuja on Tuesday.
“The police and the military and indeed no other security agency involved in the management of this protest has deployed excessive use of force,” Egbetokun said. “Instead, what we had were attacks on security agents during the protest. From our record, there were no shooting incidents by the police.”
Egbetokun dismissed claims of excessive force as “fake news and very wrong allegations.” He emphasized, “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 teargas and nothing more.”
The IGP also assured that the police were not overstretched during the protests. He noted that, “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.”
Regarding the situation in Kaduna, Egbetokun clarified that no Armoured Personnel Carrier was hijacked. 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 takeover of the Abuja stadium by the police, Egbetokun 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,” he added.
