The #RevolutionNow team has said the planned protest at the Lekki tollgate, Lagos on Saturday will hold despite threats by the Nigerian government, security operatives, and counter-protesters under the aegis of #DefendLagos.
The Nigerian government had in a statement by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, vowed to deal with the protesters.
The police in Lagos State also warned against any gathering, protest or procession in any part of the state as parts of the moves to prevent the #OccupyLekkiTollGate protest.
But #RevolutionNow team in a statement said the cause of the planned protest is beyond the ruling of the Lagos State Judicial Panel probing the alleged killing of #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki toll gate on October 20, 2020.
The group explained that it is 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 Babajide 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 again.
“We say NO! 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 have 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 justice. Deaths have been established and many victims of the Lekki shootings have surfaced, yet neither the victims nor families of our deceased colleagues have got justice.
“After close to five months of sitting, the judicial panel, meant to inquire into the Lekki massacre has refused to deliver justice to the victims of the Lekki massacre, most of whom have either lost their limbs due to gun wounds or become deceased.
The team also accused the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and the immediate former Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, of complicity in the killing of protesters at the Lekki Tollgate in October 2020.
It continued, “Despite overwhelming grounds of the complicity of Governor Sanwo-Olu and ex-army chief, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, in the Lekki massacre, neither of them have been brought to justice. President Muhammadu Buhari instead appointed them as ambassadors so they won’t be arrested and prosecuted for genocide and war crimes at The Hague. Despite #EndSARS, police brutality and extrajudicial killings have continued unabated.
“Government has refused to provide employment opportunities 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 N190 per litre.
“Nigerians are no longer secure in any part of the country; when they are not being harassed or extrajudicially murdered by the police, they are being kidnapped, maimed, and killed by bandits. Today, the lives of cows have become more valuable than those of Nigerians, even as our streets and communities have fallen under 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 justice.
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.”
Credit: PressExpress