Lukman Olabiyi, Lagos
The protest over increment in stamp duty, petrol price, electricity tariff and the stoppage of the anti-social media bill, amongst others grievances, organised by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Zone D, was thwarted in Lagos on Tuesday by the police.
NANS had on Friday, September 4, announced that it had commenced mobilisation of students for a mass action to protest the recent fuel price hike, among other complaints.
A statement by Kowe Odunayo Amos, Coordinator of NANS (Zone D) described the increase in stamp duties, fuel, electricity tariff and others as punitive to Nigerians given the prevailing economic hardship in the country due to the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns.
The protest, which supposed to hold in the southwestern States of Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Ekiti and Oyo on Tuesday, could not hold in Lagos, however, as the police aborted the rally earlier billed for the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park in Ojota.
As early as 7:00 am scores of security personnel, including police officers, Department of State Services (DSS) personnel and other security operatives were already present at the venue of the planned protest.
The security personnel, with no fewer than 30 operational vehicles, barricaded the Gani Fawehinmi Park where the rally supposed to hold.
A senior police officer, who spoke with Daily Sun on condition of anonymity, said they were acting under strict instruction that the rally, in whatever form, must not be allowed to hold.
‘We are acting based on an order that the rally must not hold because it tends to disrupt the peaceful nature of a State like Lagos,’ the police officer said.