Rhodes-Vivour tackles Hamzat over #EndSARS, tear gas incident

Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Lagos State governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress, challenged Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat over his comments regarding the 2020 #EndSARS protests. Rhodes-Vivour recalled the tear-gassing incident that occurred during a memorial at the Lekki tollgate in October 2020. He stated this during the Lagos governorship debate organized by the Nigeria Debate Consortium, responding to Hamzat's account of the state government's handling of the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests.

Hamzat described October 20, 2020, as a sad day in Lagos, expressing his presence during the period and his non-condemnation of the residents' pain. He also defended the state government's response, citing the judicial panel of inquiry set up to investigate police brutality and the Lekki tollgate incident, as well as the government's subsequent white paper on the panel's recommendations.

Rhodes-Vivour questioned the consistency of Hamzat's position with the recent treatment of opposition figures in the state, specifically recalling the tear-gassing incident at the Lekki tollgate on October 20, 2020, when he and Funso Doherty were among those affected. He argued that this incident reflected the normalization of violence against opposition parties in Lagos, emphasizing that the rhetoric did not match the reality of the situation.