Security operatives comprising the police and army have blocked the Unity Fountain venue of the #FreeNnamdiKanu protests in Abuja.

The protesters had converged at the nation’s capital on Monday demanding the release of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.

Kanu, the embattled IPOB leader, has been in the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS, since his re-arrest in June 2021.

Omoyele Sowore, an activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, had announced that a protest march to the presidential villa, on Kanu’s continued detention, will be held on October 20.

Police operatives were seen barricading the take off point of the protest. The fully armed security operatives who patrolled the area also denied access to motorists and pedestrians.

Similarly, all roads leading to the federal secretariat and the three arms zones in the nation’s capital were blocked.

It was gathered that at the Utako area, a combined team of the army and police teargassed a crowd gathered around the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ.

Free Nnamdi Kanu protest: Security personnel block major routes in Abuja