By Emma Ogbuehi
Apparently unconvinced with the intervention of the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, to sheathe their anger and give government time to meet their demands, #ENDSARS# protesters filed out in their hundreds and seized many strategic points in Lagos and other parts of the country, causing gridlocks on major highways and streets.
Aside their demand on disbandment of the controversial Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Police for incidences of brutality, the youths are also asking for an end to bad governance. For more than one week, they have been on the streets insisting on having their demands met. Though the federal government has acceded to their demand of disbandment of SARS, the instant inauguration of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT), as a replacement for the discredited SARS by the Inspector General of Police, Muhammad Adamu, the move did not assuage their anger. They even suspected insincerity on the police authorities despite assurances by the IGP that no member of the disbanded SARS would feature in the new outfit.
In Abuja, the demonstrators have stayed put in the fountain square from where they have flanked out to other parts of the federal capital territory.
In Lagos, the protesters have effectively blocked the Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridges, Lekki Phase One, Lekki Admiralty Toll Gate. They have also seized Ikeja, the state capital, occupying Awolowo Road from Oba Akran, Medical Road to Allen Avenue and parts of Agidingbi.
Protests are also going on at Ago Roundabout, Okota. Maryland in Onigbongbo local government, is also blocked.
In all the instances, the protesters have been peaceful. The situation is however different in Edo, where hoodlums have hijacked the exercise and unleashed mayhem to residents and road users. At the last count, a correctional facility in Benin, the state capital has been invaded by criminal elements in the crowd and some inmates, freed. The government has consequently imposed a 24-hour in all parts of the state. In a statement signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Osarodion Ogie , the curfew is to take effect from 4pm, today, October 19, 2020.
“This decision has become necessary because of the very disturbing incidents of vandalism and attacks on private individuals and institutions by hoodlums in the guise of #ENDSARS protesters”, the statement noted.
It added that while the government of Edo State respects the rights of its citizens to undertake legitimate protests, it cannot sit idly when hoodlums have taken laws into their hands to cause mayhem on innocent citizens and the state.
