Police have detonated teargas at a growing crowd in front of Hilton Hotel Abuja which had gathered to protest the continued incarceration of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.
As early as 6.30, some of the protesters had started trooping in in defiance of earlier police warnings.
The protesters made up of clerics, civil rights activists and others had not raised their voice and engage in any act of violence when police fired a canister of teargas at them.
One of the early birds, Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, a fiery human rights lawyer in a video alerted the public to the action of the police.
He also tweeted: “I’m in front of Transcorp Hilton with a mammoth crowd that gathered for #MNKOct20 and the police just exploded teargas. My eyes and throat hurt. They’re scattering everywhere.”
The Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Security had placed their officers on red alert to resist protesters planning to march to the seat of power in Aso Rock Villa on Monday.
Ejimakor said despite the action of security men the protest must go on, adding “we are waiting for our leader, Sowore.”
Omoyele Sowore, the face of the protest, convener of the #RevolutionNow movement and former Presidential candidate of African Action Congress, and his group are demanding the release of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
At the time of filing this report, Abuja is on high alert with the protesters insisting they will march to Aso Rock.
