Those behind the planned #OccupyLekkiTollGate protest have vowed to go ahead with the event, despite the government’s threat to crush the plan.
The protest is scheduled to hold on February 13, 2021, at the Lekki Tollgate in Lagos.
The organisers of the planned protest at the Lekki tollgate have added the ban on cryptocurrency accounts to their reasons for the action, they said in a statement seen by Punch newspaper.
They gave the reasons in a press statement made available to Punch titled, ‘EndSARS Season 2; Why we will #OccupyLekkiTollGate on Saturday – Campaigners’, on Thursday.
According to the statement, the cause of the planned protest is beyond the ruling of the Lagos State Judicial Panel probing alleged killings of #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki toll gate on October 20, 2020.
Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture on Thursday warned the government would crackdown on the organisers.
“Based on the intelligence at the disposal of the Federal Government, some Nigerian activists have linked up with others outside Nigeria, including subversive elements, with a view to destabilizing the country. We cannot and must not allow this to happen,” Mohammed said.
“However, any further resort to violence in the name of #EndSARS will not be tolerated this time,” the minister warned.
“We therefore strongly warn those who are planning to re-occupy Lekki Toll Gate on Saturday to desist,” he said.
The organisers explained that they are undaunted by threats by security operatives and counter-protesters under the aegis of #DefendLagos.
The statement read, “After committing genocide by killing scores of people who were peacefully protesting at Lekki Tollgate and other parts of Lagos, Governor Sanwo-Olu and other oppressors want 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 the 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.
“Despite overwhelming and highly compelling evidence showing how several protesters were shot by the military, no single military personnel has been brought to book.
“Deaths have been established and many 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 victims of 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 Sanwoolu and 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 extrajudicial 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 the 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 extra-judicially murdered by police, they are being kidnapped, maimed 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 en masse 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.”
Mohammed warned that “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.”
