Police in Nigeria's southern Rivers State on Tuesday broke up a rally of the National Youth Council of Ogoni People (NYCOP) on grounds that they had not sought authorisation to hold the demonstration.
NYCOP was protesting against what they deemed as the inability of the state house assembly and of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDCC) to live up to their commitments of improving the lives of habitants of the state. The council and the house were also accused of failing to protect them against "negative influences", such as environmental degradation caused by oil companies in the state, ThisDay newspaper reported.
The daily quoted the Police public relations officer, Uche Chukwuma, as saying that once the permit has been obtained, the demostration could be carried out under police protection.
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