“Na military regime?” – More Nigerian celebrities react as #OccupyLekkiTollgate protesters are arrested

Popular entertainer and activist, Debo Adebayo, popularly known as Mr Macaroni, was on Saturday arrested at the Lekki Toll Gate.

The comedian had joined other protesters at the toll gate to oppose the decision of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry to reopen the facility and hand it over to the Lekki Concession Company

“Na military regime?” Mr Macaroni said after his arrest, on an Instagram Live while in a police van. “If na military, make we know sey na military, so make everybody dey hide.”

His phone and that of other protesters were later seized by the police, ending his Instagram Live session.

More protesters arrested at the Lekki Toll Gate have been taken away from the scene in a Lekki Concession Company Black Maria, as armed policemen continue to crack down on peaceful protesters at the toll plaza.

Some of the arrested suspects denied being protesters, insisting they were just going about their businesses when they were picked up.

Disturbed at the way the policemen were chasing and arresting random people, some of the journalists approached the senior officers on the ground and were assured those who could identify themselves or explain why they were around the area would be released.

The #OccupyLekkitollgate protest and a counter-protest, #DefendLagos, were scheduled to hold at the same time Lekki toll gate by 7 a.m. on Saturday.

The protest and counter-protest are fallouts of the ruling to reopen the Lekki tollgate by the Judicial Panel of Inquiry despite an ongoing investigation into the shooting of peaceful protesters by Nigerian soldiers on October 20, 2020 and other alleged human rights abuses by the police.