TheCable

Chike Oti, spokesperson of the Lagos command of the Nigeria Police Force, says its operatives barricaded a political rally in Lagos on Thursday to prevent hoodlums from hijacking the programme.

Oti said the action by the police had no political undertone as the officers only responded to a distress call that hoodlums were coming to disrupt the event.

Heavily armed policemen had invaded the venue at Airport Hotel, Ikeja around 11am on Thursday where the activists, under the Orange Movement, had slated a rally ahead of the March 9 governorship election.

“What we did was to respond to security threats distress call at the venue of the programme,” Oti said.

“We got credible information that hoodlums were planning to hijack the programme to unleash violence on those expected to attend.

“We cannot sit back to allow any breach of security, we intervened to prevent criminals from gaining access so that the programme could hold peacefully.”

The group had converged on Oramiyan Hall in the hotel to strategise on how to stop Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), from having his way in the election.

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, candidate of the APC in the election, has the support of Tinubu.

The Orange Movement had adopted “O to Ge”, meaning “Enough is Enough”, a crusade which was used to uproot the political structure of Senate President Bukola Saraki in Kwara state.