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Over 1,500 whip-wielding supporters of the militant Oodua People's Congress took over the Onikan Stadium in central Lagos on Monday at which a key political exile was due to speak, news organisations reported.
It was not immediately clear why the group seized control of the stadium, where some 5,000 people were due to welcome Anthony Enahoro, who returned from self-imposed exile in the United States earlier in the day.
Speaking outside the home of Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu Enahoro said despite the progress made in ending military rule in Nigeria "the struggle must continue".
He added, "Nigeria is independent. What we do not have yet is democracy and modernisation."
Enahoro, 73, led the demand in 1953 for Nigeria's independence from Britain. Two years after independence in 1960 he was arrested, charged with treason then fled to Britain. PANA reported he was extradited the following year and imprisoned for treasonable felony before the military government released him in 1966.
He helped formed the National Democratic Coalition to protest the
military's annulment of the 1993 presidential election and was detained again the following year for four months. He fled into exile in 1996.
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