I am presently at the Yaba Magistrate Court, where Comrade Hassan Taiwo Soweto, and Mr. Dele Frank, also known as Arole Fela, are being arraigned on frivolous charges for participating in a protest on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, against the demolitions of various informal and local communities in Lagos State.
On the instruction of Comrade Hassan Taiwo Soweto (Organising Committee Member, #EndBadGovernance Movement, Lagos Chapter), I have been authorised to give a preliminary account of his ordeal since he was abducted by the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, Jimoh Moshood, and his men, in what was clearly a vindictive attempt to destabilise yesterday’s protest, driven by a personal grudge against him.
Soweto was forcibly dragged into the Lagos State House of Assembly complex by the CP’s men. Once inside, the Commissioner himself began to assault him, screaming obscenities and berating him for publicly accusing the police of killing babies and innocent people. He was beaten repeatedly. Boots were used on his face and every other part of his body. The officers also attempted to strangle him with the neckpiece he was wearing, leaving his neck visibly bruised and impairing his ability to swallow. When the CP realised that Soweto had identified him as one of his assailants, he ordered his men to tear Soweto’s clothes, blindfold him with the torn fabric, and restrain his hands.
It is instructive that the same Assembly complex from which peaceful protesters were barred access , under the pretext of “security” was the very space into which the Commissioner of Police and his men forcibly dragged Comrade Soweto to assault him. Lawmakers who refused to extend the barest courtesy to frail elderly protesters, many of whom had trekked long distances under the sun, denying them the right to sit within a designated public space of the Assembly, stood by and watched as the Commissioner violently destabilised the protest and hauled a peaceful citizen into that same building to be brutalised. Honourable Ogundipe Stephen Olukayode and other members present did not intervene.
Shame on the Lagos State House of Assembly members who witnessed Jimoh Moshood unleash teargas on elderly women and men whose homes had already been illegally demolished by the state. Shame on a legislature that became a silent accomplice to violence, humiliation, and torture carried out within its own walls. SHAME!
Soweto narrated, and I quote:
“The CP began to beat me up immediately I was dragged into Alausa. When he realised I could see and recognised him among those assaulting me, he ordered his men to tear my shirt and blindfold me with it. They continued beating me until they decided to move me into a van and take me to Panti.”
At Panti, officers attempted to subject him to forced medical treatment, seeing all the injuries they had caused him. He was held down with his hands tied together behind while a nurse was invited to forcibly inject him and administer medication without his consent. Soweto fiercely resisted, forcing the nurse, and mischievous thugs in uniform into back off. He also warned that he would report her to her professional union if she attempted to treat him without his consent.
The police then attempted to compel him to write a statement. He refused, insisting on access to his lawyer. On the express instruction of the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, Soweto was denied access to his lawyers, his family, and members of the public who sought to see him. This explains why civil society actors who searched for him across multiple police stations yesterday were met with deliberate denial and feigned ignorance of his whereabouts, including at the CP’s office. For refusing to write a statement in the absence of his legal counsel, he was given another round of serious beating.
Realising that they were acting outside the law at Panti and would definitely run into trouble for what they had done, the Commissioner and his men attempted a rushed arraignment. Soweto was transferred into a van and driven at breakneck speed to the Ogba Magistrate Court, but the court had already closed, despite their plea that he be arraigned regardless of the time.
They returned him to Panti.
Soweto has confirmed that during the assault, the police broke his eyeglasses, leaving him partially blind. His sneakers were also seized. He was subsequently arraigned at the Yaba Magistrate Court without footwear and in his underwear.
I have also been informed by Soweto that while assaulting him, the police named me as another target for brutality, referencing my engagement at the Lagos State House of Assembly on January 15, 2026, where I challenged the illegal demolitions in Makoko and refused intimidation by police officers and the DPO attached to the Assembly axis. They described my attire and the glasses I wore yesterday, repeatedly expressing regret that they had not abducted me during the chaos they deliberately engineered, stating that they would have dealt with me as well.
For the record, the #EndBadGovernance Movement, Lagos Chapter, previously secured a court victory in 2025 against the Office of the Lagos State Commissioner of Police for his role in the brutalisation and torture of peaceful protesters who were commemorating the fourth anniversary of the EndSARS massacre at the Lekki Tollgate. The court awarded N10 million in damages to the victims. To date, the Police Commissioner and his officers have neither complied with the judgment nor learned the basic obligations of a civil institution to treat Nigerians with dignity.
This background offers critical insight into the targeted nature of the attack on Comrade Soweto.
On a lighter note, while confined in the cell, Comrade Arole Fela, who bears a resemblance to the legendary Afrobeat musician, treated fellow detainees to music and spirited gyration. The police officers, unfortunately for them, could only watch from outside. Oppression never pays. We will continue to fight back.
Zikora Ibeh
Asst. Executive Director, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA)
