***No Going Back, Organisers
***We Will Crush You On Saturday, FG
The Federal Government has warned against any planned protest, especially at the Lekki Toll gate, Lagos, saying that it will not tolerate violent protest under any guise.
But the organisers have vowed that there is no going back from the planned protest dubbed #OccupyLekkiTollGate, “EndSARS Season 2”, insisting that the reasons for the protest are multiple.
Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, on Thursday, in Abuja, while briefing Journalists warned that though every Nigerian has the freedom to protest but violence in the name of protests will not be condoned.
He claimed that based on Intelligence there are high chances that the protest which is planned to take place on February 13, 2021, at the Lekki Toll Gate will be hijacked by hoodlums.
According to the Minister, “Some #EndSARS proponents have given notice of their plan to return to Lekki Tollgate. They want to return there on Saturday, February 13, this year.
“The #OccupyLekkiTollgate flyers have been circulating online with the proponents threatening that Lagos will burn again.
“Let me be clear, while peaceful protests are constitutional rights of Nigerians, violent protests are not.
“At this time, the chances that any peaceful protest will be hijacked are very high. Any resort to violence in the name of #EndSARS will not be tolerated this time.
“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. They are elsewhere around the world fanning the embers of violence and inciting gullible people back home. No one should fall for their antics”.
But the organisers of the #OccupyLekkiTollGate in a statement said: “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 Toll gate 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.
“Despite overwhelming and highly compelling evidence showing how several protesters were shot by themilitary, no single military personnel has been brought to book.
“Deaths have been established andmany victims of the Lekki shootings have surfaced, yet neither the victims or families of our deceased colleagues have gotten justice.
“After close to five months of sitting, the judicial panel meant to inquire into the lekki massacre has refused to deliver justice to victimsof the Lekki massacre most of whom have either lost their limbs due to gun wounds or have become deceased.
“Despite overwhelming grounds of involvement of Governor Sanwooluand ex-army chief, Buratai in the Lekki Massacre, neither of them have been brought to book. President Buhari instead appointed them ambassadors so they won’t be arrested and prosecuted for genocide and war crimes at the Hague. Despite EndSARS, police brutality and extra-judicial killings continue unabated.
“Government has refused to provide employment for young people, yet they went ahead to ban the most promising source of income of young people; cryptocurrency.
“Nigerians are extremely poorer and yet the cost of food is on the high side with increased cost of electricity that only produces darkness. Petrol price is being increased as marketers want it at#190 per litre.
“Nigerians are no longer secured in any part of the country; when they are not being harassed or extrajudicially murdered by police, they are being kidnapped, mimed and killed by bandits.
“Today, the life of cows has become more valuable than those of Nigerians even as our streets and communities have fallen to the rule of kidnappers and bandits.The Nigerian government now negotiates and enriches terrorists and bandits while chasing after, arresting, shooting and killing protesters.
“It is to this end that we call on you all to come out enmasse to demand not just justice for victims and fallen heroes of the October 20 killings but that all involved in this heinous criminality be brought to book.
“Come out to demand the right to life and to exist in a country that respects our rights as citizens, abhors police brutality/extrajudicial killings, provides us with security, decent jobs with good wages and other such socio-economic rights that come with being a citizen.”
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