{"id":166727,"date":"2025-06-12T22:21:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T21:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/police-accused-of-aiding-disruption-of-peaceful-protest-in-akure"},"modified":"2025-06-13T00:14:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T23:14:18","slug":"police-accused-of-aiding-disruption-of-peaceful-protest-in-akure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/police-accused-of-aiding-disruption-of-peaceful-protest-in-akure","title":{"rendered":"Police accused of aiding disruption of peaceful protest in Akure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>A former presidential candidate under the African Action Congress, AAC, Omoyele Sowore, has accused the Nigeria Police Force of supporting individuals who disrupted a peaceful protest on Thursday in Akure, the Ondo State capital.<\/p>\n<p>According to Sowore, the protest was organised to promote democratic rights and draw attention to concerns surrounding governance in Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>He stated that the group formally notified the police in advance through a letter submitted by their legal representative.<\/p>\n<p>He stated that the communication was not to seek permission, but to remind law enforcement of their constitutional duty to safeguard peaceful protesters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA letter had been written by a lawyer to the Commissioner of Police,\u201d Sowore said. \u201cIt was not a request for permission to protest, but a reminder of the police\u2019s responsibility to protect citizens. It is disappointing that they failed in this duty and instead supported thugs who disrupted the protest,\u201d he alleged.<\/p>\n<p>He added that although the Commissioner of Police had previously given assurances, no action was taken when the protest was reportedly attacked.<\/p>\n<p>Sowore stated that the protest organisers had issued a warning in response to the incident, suggesting further action could follow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Commissioner had been warned. If nothing is done, we will return and assert our presence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Sowore also alleged that the disruption was aimed at suppressing public expression. \u201cNobody has the right to stop another Nigerian from expressing their views,\u201d he added. \u201cThese hired individuals came to sabotage and attack peaceful demonstrators.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Human rights lawyer Tope Temokun, who was also present, confirmed that the protest organisers had sought police protection ahead of the event. He condemned the attack and called for accountability from security agencies.<\/p>\n<p>Ondo State Commissioner of Police, Wilfred Afolabi, denied any involvement by the police in the disruption. He described the claims as unfounded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the level of training our officers have received both locally and internationally, I can assure the public that no policeman under my watch would collaborate with thugs,\u201d Afolabi said. \u201cThe allegation is baseless.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. A former presidential candidate under the African Action Congress, AAC, Omoyele Sowore, has accused the Nigeria Police Force of supporting individuals who disrupted a peaceful protest on Thursday in Akure, the Ondo State capital. According to Sowore, the protest was organised to promote democratic rights and draw attention to concerns surrounding governance [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":166725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[6878,254,165,260],"class_list":["post-166727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-akure","tag-nigeria","tag-police","tag-protest"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Police accused of aiding disruption of peaceful protest in Akure - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A former presidential candidate under the African Action Congress, AAC, Omoyele Sowore, has accused the Nigeria Police F ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/police-accused-of-aiding-disruption-of-peaceful-protest-in-akure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Police accused of aiding disruption of peaceful protest in Akure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A former presidential candidate under the African Action Congress, AAC, Omoyele Sowore, has accused the Nigeria Police F ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/police-accused-of-aiding-disruption-of-peaceful-protest-in-akure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-12T21:21:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-12T23:14:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1749757511.537204.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/police-accused-of-aiding-disruption-of-peaceful-protest-in-akure#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/police-accused-of-aiding-disruption-of-peaceful-protest-in-akure\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Police accused of aiding disruption of peaceful protest in Akure\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-12T21:21:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-12T23:14:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/police-accused-of-aiding-disruption-of-peaceful-protest-in-akure\"},\"wordCount\":357,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/police-accused-of-aiding-disruption-of-peaceful-protest-in-akure#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1749757511.537204.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"akure\",\"Nigeria\",\"Police\",\"Protest\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/police-accused-of-aiding-disruption-of-peaceful-protest-in-akure#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/police-accused-of-aiding-disruption-of-peaceful-protest-in-akure\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/police-accused-of-aiding-disruption-of-peaceful-protest-in-akure\",\"name\":\"Police accused of aiding disruption of peaceful protest in Akure - 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