The Lagos State government has appealed to those behind the proposed August 1st protest to reconsider the idea in the interest of peace.
This is just as the police and other security agencies in the state, including the Nigerian Immigration Service, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, and Department of State Security Service have warned against any violent protest in any part of Lagos State.
The appeals and the warnings and the appeal were given on Thursday at a security stakeholders meeting, held at the Police Officers’ Wives Association (POWA) hall in Ikeja at the instance of the Lagos State Police Command.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Youths and Social Development, Bolaji Ogunlende, while speaking at the meeting urged the organisers of the protest to consider peace and the efforts of the state government at empowering youths.
He said “Lagos State has also done a lot for the youths in the state and also empower them in various capacity and employ some of them into this government.
“We appealing to the faceless people behind the protest to stop it and consider the peace of Lagos.”
Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Adegoke Fayoade, while speaking at the meeting, warned that the police and other security agencies have resolved not to allow a violent protest in the state.
He noted that “The police and other security agencies have no idea of the organizers of the protest and that they had not contacted the police for protection.
“We have no idea of the organizers of the event. In the past, we have met with organizers of protests and we provided them with security and such protests went peacefully.
“A faceless protest is dangerous and can lead to the breakdown of law and order and the police will not fold their hands and watch hoodlums destroy the property of taxpayers.
“We are deliberating on issues concerning the planned protest, but we have not been able to phantom those behind it. That is why we don’t want a repeat of the #Endsars protest that brought untold hardships to the populace.
“We don’t want Nigeria to be seen by the international community to see Nigeria as not being insecure for investment.
“We also don’t want hoodlums to take over the state and start killing and looting. I repeat, we don’t want a breakdown of law and order and that’s why we are calling on religious leaders, local government chairmen and members of the public to sensitize the youths and students to shelve the planned protest.
“We won’t allow the protest to hold, because it’s a minus for the state. It would disturb business and freedom of movement.
“We know that things are difficult. Prices of goods have skyrocketed, but violence is not the solution. We don’t want what happened in Kenya to happen in Lagos and Nigeria at large.”
Lagos State Director of the Department of State Service, Dapo Amao said talks of the proposed protest have caused a lot of panic in the last two weeks
He said, “We are appealing to people to shelve the protest, it is your right to protest but how peaceful can it be.
“That is why we want people to avoid the protest and the situation is tense. A good protest can bring development, while a bad one kills and destroys let us give the government time to bring development for us all.”
The Lagos State Chairman National Association of Nigeria Students, Comrade Alimi Idris said the Lagos State students cannot join a cause they don’t fully understand.
He said, “We students of Lagos State already have internal battles we are facing, and I am here to state categorically that the 11 tertiary institutions in Lagos will not join a protest we don’t know the beginning and the ending.
“We don’t have time to join a protest when we are already dealing with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, strike and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, strike. We don’t want anything else that will delay our academics, thereby having to graduate in seven years for a four-year course.
“I want to appeal to students in Lagos State University and Polytechnic not to join any protest we don’t know anything about.
“Many presidents of various institutions in Lagos State have already started calling me, saying they are being contacted by unknown numbers about the protest. But I’m here to state that we are not joining the protest because we don’t know the organisers.”
Presidents at the meeting were: religious leaders, market leaders, trade union leaders, students leaders, ethnic and community leaders.
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