Security Agents Will Resist #OccuppyLekkiTollGate Planned Protest, FG Warns #EndSARS Members

The Federal Government has issued a stern warning in the lead up to the planned invasion of the Lekki Toll Gate Plaza by #EndSARS protesters on Saturday.

The protesters are said to be planning what they tagged ‘#OccuppyLekkiTollGate’ to prevent reopening of the toll gate by the Lagos State Government.

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The toll gate had been shut down since October, 2020, after operatives of the Nigerian Army allegedly opened fire on unarmed #EndSARS members who were protesting incessant rights abuses by operatives of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Enquiry and Restitution for Victims of SARS had approved the reopening of the toll gate by the Lekki Concession Company Ltd, but the protesters kicked against it on the grounds that some of their members allegedly murdered by the soldiers were yet to get justice.

But reacting to the protesters’ plan to picket the Lekki Toll Gate Plaza on Saturday, the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, has said the government would resist “any further resort to violence in the name of #EndSARS”

Mohammed said, “The security agents are ready for any eventuality. A situation in which six soldiers and 37 policemen were murdered in cold blood by hoodlums will not repeat itself.

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“The attack, looting and razing of 269 private and public property will not happen again. The killing of 57 civilians will not be re-enacted.”

“No government anywhere will allow a repeat of the kind of destruction, killing and maiming wrought by the hijackers of #EndSARS protests last year.

“After all, only one policeman – (plus four others) – was killed in the invasion of the US Capitol in January, yet the FBI has continued to hunt down and prosecute the perpetrators. No life is more important than the other,” The Nation quoted him as telling reporters in Abuja.

The minister added, “We therefore strongly warn those who are planning to re-occupy Lekki Toll Gate on Saturday to desist.

“We know that many of those who have been loudest on social media in advertising the plan to reconvene in Lagos on Saturday are not even in Nigeria.

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“They are elsewhere around the world fanning the embers of violence and inciting gullible people back home. No one should fall for their antics.”

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