By Segun Amure
Scores of anti-riot policemen have been mobilized to the Lekki Toll Plaza in Lagos, venue of the protest planned for Saturday, raising tension to fever level among Lagosians.
The policemen were reportedly led to the venue by the Commissioner for Police in Lagos State, Hakeem Odumosu.
Pictures show the officers taking positions in the area in an apparent show of force to deter the protesters.
Recall the youths under the aegis of OccupyLekki had on Thursday announced February 13, 2021 for the commencement of its #ENDSARS 2, barely four months after the October 2020 protest in Lagos and other parts of the country.
Despite warnings by the Federal and Lagos State governments restraining the protesters from converging, the organizers of the protest have insisted that the planned protest would hold Saturday.
Also, another group dubbed ‘#DefendLagos’ has planned a counter protest at the same venue, triggering more tension on what to expect from the two sides when they clash at the protest ground.
On Thursday, Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed had hinted that security operatives would be heavily mobilized to stop all forms of protest, citing the wanton destruction that accompanied the October’s protest.
The organizers of protest had said beyond the Lagos Judicial Panel which had ordered the reopening of Lekki Plaza, the ban by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on cryptocurrency accounts and other socio-political issues necessitated the protest.
In a press statement titled, ‘EndSARS Season 2; Why we will #OccupyLekkiTollGate on Saturday – Campaigners’, the protesters submitted that the cause of the planned protest was beyond the ruling of the Lagos State Judicial Panel.
The statement reads, “After commiting genocide by killing scores of people who were peacefully protesting at Lekki Tollgate and other parts of Lagos, Governor Sanwo-Olu and other oppressors wants to spit on the dead and dance on the blood of the innocent by reopening the yahoo gate to be collecting their blood money as again.”
“We say NO! We are undaunted! We will be occupying Lekki Tollgate again starting from Saturday February 13. We urge all well-meaning Nigerians to storm back all the barricades as our rulers have shown that they can never change. Since the #EndSARS, they are yet to effect any of the promises. Police brutality is still raging and SARS is still operating,” the OccupyLekkiTollgate campaigners said.
