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Commissioner For Info Explains Why Operations Haven’t Resumed At Lekki Tollgate

The Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotosho, has explained that operations have not resumed at the Lekki Tollgate and the Ikoyi Link Bridge, three years after the EndSARS protests because the facilities suffered massive damage, requiring a lot of funds to fix.

Omotosho, in an interview with newsmen on Tuesday, described what happened  during the October 2020 EndSARS protest “as a kind of war visited on Lagos.”

In the mass protest that began in early October 2020, shortly after the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) called off its scheduled nationwide protest, thousands of youths took to the streets across various states in the country to demand the scrapping of the brutal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police Force.

The protests grounded major facilities in the country and gained international attention and support until the shooting at the Lekki Tollgate on the night of 20th of October, 2020.

There have since been calls for justice for those who lost their lives in the protest, particularly in Lagos. 

Some activists have also maintained that the Lekki toll gate should not be reopened until justice is obtained for those who died during the protest.

The National Coordinator of a human rights group, Take It Back Movement, Juwon Sanyaolu, on Tuesday, said the movement secured the release of three #EndSARS protesters from prison, namely, Sunday Okoro, Olumide Fatai and Oluwole Yisa “after a year of legal process.”

Amnesty International while reacting to their release on X, said it “welcomes the discharge and acquittal today of Sunday Okoro, Olumide Fatai and Oluwole Isa who have been detained at Kirikiri Medium Correctional Centre, Lagos State for participating in #EndSARS protests in October 2020.”

Speaking on the Lekki Tollgate that is not in operation, the Lagos Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Omotosho, said,  “All of the things that Lagos took pride in were attacked and destroyed. The Lagos High Court, which is iconic, the seat of government; the DNA laboratory, the first of its kind in West Africa, then hundreds of buses, including the media houses – they set fire to TVC, The Nation. It was a season of madness.

“So the toll gate was also a victim. It had nothing to do with the problem but it’s also a victim. So for the state government to return to that kind of business overnight, it will take time because they need to reinstall the equipment to make people know it’s in service. 

“They need to maintain the bridge. They need to do periodic checks on the bridge. So I think getting this equipment is a question of money, personnel, installation and all of that. Some day, it (those things) will return to the Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge.”

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