Three men have landed in the police net for allegedly stealing Point of Sale machines and wipers of vehicles in the guise of protesting bad governance in Nigeria.

BEYOND AFRICA gathered that the incident occurred in Rivers State.

The state Commissioner for Police, Olatunji Disu, disclosed this while fielding questions from newsmen in Port Harcourt.

Disu, who said he carried out an on-the-spot assessment of the protest in various parts of the state, expressed dismay that miscreants had taken over the protest.

He further said the organisers of the genuine protest had lost control of the protesters, saying the police could not fold their hands and allow hoodlums to have a free run.

Disu said, “I give you my word, I’m going to find out what happened here. But, I’m aware that hoodlums have hijacked this protest from them.

“They have a lot of people moving around with them harassing members of the public. About one hour ago, we arrested three people who went around stealing POS machines among the protesters.

“We have thugs; we have people who have been stealing wipers from people’s vehicles. They’ve been trying to burn tyres everywhere and policemen have been going immediately to extinguish them.

“So, these are not protesters, thugs are among them. If thugs are here, maybe, they came with them or something like that. But I give my word, I’m going to investigate and I’ll give you feedback about what I find out.”