Addressing a press conference on Monday, the group slammed the police chief for a "damage control" visit to the market last Friday.
The Centre for Human and Socio-Economic Rights (CHSR) has called for the immediate removal of the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, CP Moshood Jimoh, accusing the police command of acting as "political actors" and attempting to cover up the extrajudicial killing of six traders at the Owode Onirin market.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, the group slammed the police chief for a "damage control" visit to the market last Friday.
In the text of the conference made available to SaharaReporters on Tuesday, signed by CHSR's President, Comrade Alex Omotehinse, it alleged the visit was a calculated attempt to sow division among victims of illegal demolitions across the state.
The CHSR revealed that the current tension stems from the August 27, 2025, invasion of the Owode Onirin market by a "brutal alliance" of state actors, land grabbers, and compromised security operatives. The group alleged that six young men were killed in cold blood during the enforcement of forced evictions.
"Those six Owode Onirin young Nigerians were not statistics," Omotehinse declared. "They were sons. They were victims of a brutal alliance between state actors and their accomplice land grabbers, armed thugs, and compromised state security operatives."
The group refuted claims by the police that the demolitions were purely civil matters, insisting that the killings remain uninvestigated five months later.
The rights group expressed outrage over CP Moshood Jimoh’s recent media briefing held inside the market on January 30, 2026.
According to the CHSR, the CP attempted to gaslight the public by labeling protesters as "rented crowds" and falsely claiming that civil society actors were outsiders meddling in community affairs.
Omotehinse produced a letter from the Owode Onirin Spare Parts Association dated March 10, 2025, to prove the group was formally invited to intervene long before the current escalation.
"For anyone, including the Commissioner of Police, to insinuate today that civil society actors 'are not from affected communities' or that protesters were 'rented crowds' is not just false, it is reckless, insulting, and dangerous," Omotehinse said.
"Were the Owode motor spare parts market protesters suddenly 'rented' today because they stood shoulder to shoulder with other victims? This CP Moshood Jimoh narrative is cheap, lazy, and morally bankrupt."
The CHSR accused the Lagos Police Command of attempting to fracture the unity of various communities currently facing mass demolitions, including Makoko, Oworonshoki, and Owode Onirin.
The group highlighted the contrast between the CP’s "damage control" visit and the reality on the streets. "What exists are inhuman living conditions, shattered livelihoods, displaced families, blood on the streets, and unanswered questions about the Owode Six," the statement added.
The CHSR issued a list of "non-negotiable" demands, top of which is the immediate exit of the Lagos CP.
"We demand the immediate removal of CP Moshood Jimoh as Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, for being too temperamental and for his lack of leadership tolerance," the group stated.
Other demands include: An immediate public retraction of the "misleading statements" credited to the CP, an independent investigation into the killing of the six traders and others across the state and the prosecution of land grabbers and their accomplices in the security agencies.
The group also called for compensation and restoration for all affected communities.
"History is watching! The victims are watching!! And Nigerians are watching!!! The whole world is watching," Omotehinse warned, vowing that no amount of state-sponsored "blackmail" would stop the coalition from seeking justice.