Police tear-gassed protesters and a journalist converged at the Ibom Plaza, Uyo Friday as the #EndBadGovernance protest entered Day 2 in Akwa Ibom state.

Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Timfon Jobn, in response to the situation, said the Police Command, Akwa Ibom State, was too busy monitoring the protest to have time to respond to a media enquiry.

Trouble started as Uyo Correspondent of the New Nigerian Newspapers engaged Jonathan Titus, Leader of Akwa protesters under the platform of the “Good Good Governance Renaissance’ in an interview on the situation when the Police on guard urged the protesters to vacate the the Plaza which is usually a protest rallying venue.

Vanguard gathered that when the protesters questioned why they were urging them to move to Cenotaph, Unity Park, along Udo Udoma Avenue, the security agents tear-gassed the crowd to disperse the protesters numbering about 15 as the crowd gathered momentum.

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The state correspondent of the New Nigeria Newspaper was also affected by the teargas.

Before the tear-gassing, the protesters were seen moving around the Plaza Roundabout displaying placards of various inscriptions, some reading, “Politicians Pity us”, Nigeria Jaga, Jaga”, High cost of Living don kill the Living”, Give Us 10 more refineries “, “End Bad governance Nigeria, End Hunger in Akwa Ibom”, Reduce Fuel Price to N100.00″ among others.

The protesters later began chanting solidarity songs as security agencies including the Police were seen escorting them to the Unity Park, Udo Udoma, where Commissioner of Police, CP Waheed Ayilara had restricted them to the protest.

One of the leaders of the group, Jonathan Titus, speaking at the Ibom Plaza before the Police disruption, said, “We are here to protest against hardship.

“We are here to protest against hunger, high cost of living, high cost of fuel in this country. In this country we can do better as a people, we cannot produce crude oil and buy fuel at N900 per litre.

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“This is unacceptable. An average person cannot feed his family again because of the way things are going. The federal government has increased the minimum wage to N70,000. Seventy thousand Naira minimum wage is useless because it cannot buy a bag of Rice.

“If you collect N70,000 you must borrow another N20,000 before you can buy a bag of Rice. So we are saying that we need a bag of Rice to be brought down to N10,000 and fuel pump price brought down to N100 per litre “

The Protesters were escorted to Udo Udoma along with not less than 15 trucks of armed security operatives as the “Good Good Governance Renaissance” vowed not to relent in the face of intimidation from security operatives.

Police PRO, Timfon John told Vanguard, “We cannot just give out any information for now. I have been on patrol with the Commissioner of Police, going to different places. It’s only one place we saw protesters in all our movements. And those protesters were not even up to 20.”