In the early hours of Friday, officers from the Nigeria Police, Ogun State command, attacked the popular phone market, TARMAC armed with heavy weapons.
The police arrived at TARMAC around 5:30 a.m. in 20 patrol vans, reportedly to enforce an Ogun State High Court injunction issued in February 2020 by one Odubela family in Ibara to seek for a writ of enforcement to take possession of the land housing the phone market.
Ogunwatch reports that the police officers had placed a caution tape around the phone market with the Ibara bridge surrounded by a sizable number of stern-appearing officers who were properly positioned and fully equipped.
As owners of the market stalls, who are members of the Mobile Phone Dealers and Technicians Association (MOPDATEC), approached the policeman to ask why their establishment had been closed, the officers ordered the shop owners to stay away or risk arrest.
The phone sellers became enraged by this development and rushed to the scene but the policeman fired straight shots into the air after spotting the group of store owners, then used tear gas to disperse the enraged protesters.
An eyewitness disclosed to Ogunwatch that Ifeoluwa Togunwa, the chairman of the mobile phone dealers, arrived on the scene to calm the protesters, but instead, the enraged police officers brutally beat him and hauled him away in a police van.
