The Abuja police are still detaining Ayoola Babalola, a freelance journalist arrested on Saturday.
Babalola was reporting live from the #EndBadGovernance protest at the MKO Abiola National Stadium in Abuja when policemen and men of the Department of State Services (DSS) began shooting live ammunition and teargas.
Several protesters and journalists were hit, and the police made several arrests.
On WhatsApp, Babalola posted a status at about 12:33 pm saying, “I’ve been arrested, comrades. I’m being held at Wuye Police Station. We are standing our ground and not releasing our devices.”
He said he and six others were held there, but that was the last public comment he made.
Josephine Adeh, spokesperson for the Abuja police command, told pressmen on Saturday that she was looking for the journalist, but when FIJ called her multiple times on Sunday, her known number was unreachable.
Babalola is one of many journalists arrested and attacked by the police during the protest. An AIT reporter suffered a leg injury in Abuja on Saturday as he made to escape onslaught from the police. Bakare Mojeed and Yakubu Muhammed of Premium Times suffered damages to their properties and physical harm respectively.
Saturday was the third of 10 days of a nationwide protest against harsh economic policies introduced by the Bola Tinubu-led government.
The president issued a national broadcast on Sunday morning in response to the protest, but it has failed to dissuade protesters.
