The Lagos State Police Command on Thursday introduced two activists, Hassan Taiwo, popularly often known as Soweto, and Dele Frank, earlier than the Chief Justice of the Peace’s Courtroom sitting in Yaba, Lagos, over their alleged involvement in a protest in opposition to what organisers described as unlawful demolitions, compelled evictions and land grabbing.

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The defendants had been arraigned on a five-count cost bordering on conspiracy, conduct prone to breach public peace, illegal meeting, obstruction of site visitors, threats, and the alleged chanting of abusive songs in opposition to the police and the Lagos State Authorities.

Presenting the case, the prosecutor, Mr Anthony Ihiehie, informed the courtroom that the alleged offences had been dedicated on January 28, 2026, at Allen Avenue, Alausa, and inside the premises of the Lagos State Home of Assembly.

He stated the defendants allegedly acted in live performance to interact in actions able to disturbing public order, together with threatening members of the general public and impeding the free circulation of site visitors.

Each Taiwo and Frank pleaded not responsible to all the costs.

Proceedings had been briefly interrupted when famend human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, introduced his look for the defendants.

The prosecution objected, citing a 2025 courtroom resolution from Oyo State, which it claimed restricted Senior Advocates of Nigeria from showing earlier than decrease courts.

Falana, nevertheless, disagreed, arguing that each the Structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Lagos State Magistrates’ Courtroom Regulation clearly permit any certified authorized practitioner, no matter rank, to seem earlier than a Justice of the Peace’s courtroom.

In her ruling, Justice of the Peace I.O. Alaka upheld Falana’s place, noting that the standing of Senior Advocate of Nigeria doesn’t bar a lawyer from showing in a decrease courtroom.

The courtroom thereafter admitted the defendants to bail in the sum of N200,000 every, with two sureties in like sum, and adjourned the case till March 3, 2026, for point out.