Hours after a candlelight procession was held in honour of the late Nigerian rapper MohBad, operatives of the Lagos State Police reportedly dispersed sympathisers with teargas after an illegal gathering at the Lekki tollgate on Thursday night.
Punch Metro reported that MohBad died mysteriously on September 12th and was hurriedly buried about 24 hours after forcing the police to exhume his body for an autopsy.
On the eve of the exhumation, some industry bigwigs including Davido, Falz, OAP Do2dtun, Zlatan, Cute Abiola, Barry Jhay, and many youths gathered at the Muri Okunola Park in the Victoria Island area of Lagos to pay their last respects for MohBad.
However, hours after the procession ended at the park, some sympathizers proceeded to Lekki Toll Gate, the site of the EndSARS protest which is about a 2.7km drive from Muri Okunola Park, according to Google Maps, to stage another procession for #MohBad after the initial one held in the evening that ended at the park.
Although the state police command has not commented on the report, viral videos made available to this publication showed a number of youths running as they scampered to safety from the teargas.
JUST IN: Available report indicates that the Police Stationed at the Lekki Toll Gate have disperse the crowd at the Lekki Toll plaza after some group of protesters converge at the plaza, while the procession of Late Rapper Ilerioluwa Aloba aka Mohbad was over at Muri okunola,… pic.twitter.com/AdftrjB9Ns
— Eons Intelligence (@eonsintelligenc) September 21, 2023
“We were sitting in front of the tollgate. We had a lot of police officers there. So, where the teargas came from, we don’t see it. We just saw the tear gas from the back. No car could move. It was this cab that helped us,” a lady said in a video shared on X through actress Iyabo Ojo’s Instagram live video.
Another mourner who attended the candlelight said, “I came out for my brother, Mohbad. This is the cabman who helped me. They fired teargas. These people came from the back. We don’t know them. I don’t even know them. All the police officers were there securing us.”
Meanwhile, one of the headliners of the official candlelight procession held at Muri Okunola Park, Do2dtun took to his verified X account to slate both the police and the youths who converged at the Lekki toll plaza.
The OAP said, “Honesty over Honesty Nigerians do not listen. WE DO THE MOST. This procession ended at Muri Okunola Park over 3 hours ago. We ended and all left. Some still went to converge at the Lekki toll gate. It is not a protest. It is a CANDLELIGHT PROCESSION.
“It’s not right for the police to do that but people hijack these things & turn it to something else. Muri Okunola was approved & it was a peaceful candle procession. it’s just common sense. The people that went home, are they stupid? Apply this thing sometimes. Na Lagos we dey.”
