There was tension on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on Monday as members of the President Goodluck Campaign Organisation as well as the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) held motorists and passers-by hostage for hours in protest against the continued stay in office of Professor Attahiru Jega, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Armed with dangerous weapons including guns, cutlasses and knives, the protesters caused panic as many people scampered on sighting them.
Even though they were closely followed by security agents, they destroyed every billboard and other campaign materials belonging to the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) along the road.
They also chanted anti-Jega songs demanding that he should be sacked as they no longer trust him to carry out transparent, peaceful and credible elections in the country on 28th March and 11th April.
The protesters, later stationed at the 7up Bottling Company end of the Expressway where they were joined by members of the FERMA Task Force, whose office is on the other side of the expressway and who earn their salaries from the SURE-P fund.
Their activities caused serious traffic problems on roads linking the expressway as motorists refused to move in order to avoid trouble.
The few motorists and pedestrians who summoned the courage to pass through were either harassed or beaten. Some passers-by were dispossessed of their personal effects by the protesters.
After about an hour at the Toll Gate/7up end of the road, the protesters marched through the length of Ikorodu Road distributing leaflets and flyers against Jega.
The protest later terminated at the National Stadium in Surulere area of Lagos where they held a rally in support of President Jonathan’s re-election.
Some days ago, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) also protested against the retention of Jega to conduct the elections.
But the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) had rejected any plan to get Jega sacked ahead of the election, saying the north trust him to conduct credible polls.
The group also warned against any planned removal of the Commission’s chairman.
The scene created on Monday may, in a way, validate APC’s earlier alarm in a statement accusing Jonathan of spending N9 billion on sponsorship of ethnic militia groups to protest and try to scuttle the elections.
