*Threatens to stage street-to-street sensitisation of Lagosians against the directive
A group under the auspices of New Nigeria Network has kicked against the decision of the Lagos State Government to reopen toll collection in the State.
Quest Times had reported that the Lekki Concession Company (LCC) announced that toll collection will resume at the Lekki-Ikoyi link bridge on April 1, 2022, 17 months after scores were reportedly murdered in cold blood at the site(s).
Toll collection at the bridge was stopped as young people protested decades of police brutality, profiling, extortion, and extra-judicial killings under the #EndSARS banner.
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Hoodlums hijacked the protests nationwide, afterwards.
On October 20, 2020, armed soldiers and police officers stormed the Lekki, Lagos venue of the protests and fired live rounds into a crowd of young, armless protesters.
Reacting, the group in a statement jointly signed Wednesday, by its co-conveners (Adesina Ogunlana and Juwon Sanyaolu) and co-secretary (Ayo Ademiluyi), said the decision to reopen toll collection by the Lagos State Government is “illegal and repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience over the unmasked graves of the martyrs of the 20th October 2020 Massacre”.
The group further threatened to “commence street-to-street sensitisation of residents and motorists in the Lekki-Ajah axis of Lagos from April 1 to April 14, 2022, to implore them to refuse to pay the toll at the toll plazas” adding that “all interested persons should join us”.
“We hereby give notice that we are opposed to the resumption of the tolling at the Ikoyi-Lekki Link Bridge and subsequently at the Admiralty Toll Plaza or, anywhere else (such as the Conservation Toll Plaza) on the Lekki-Epe Expressway as same is illegal given that the Concession Agreement between the Lekki-Epe Expressway as same is illegal given that the Concession Agreement between the Lekki Concession Company and Lagos State Government has expired,” the group opined.
It added; “We are of the view that the planned reopening is an insult to the memory of the martyrs and victims of the Lekki Massacre, which is drawing close to two years now.
“Most of the survivors of the Lekki Massacre, who still carry wounds and injuries of the attacks on their bodies are completely left to their fate,” the group stated.
