Anxiety in Lagos over plan to resume #EndSARS protest
There is anxiety in Lagos over planned resumption of #EndSARS protest today by some youths amidst threat by the police to resist any gathering.
The #EndSARS movement is said to be mobilizing to stage a fresh protest across the state citing “harassment” of the promoters.
The state panel of inquiry investigating alleged brutality and abuses by the disbanded State Anti-Robbery Squadas well as the recent Lekki shootings had suspended sitting on Saturday when two youth representatives pulled out in protest against the freezing of accounts of the #EndSARS promoters by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The youth, it was learnt, are already mobilizing ahead of today’s protest three weeks after the state recovered from massive arsons and destruction of public assets in the previous protests.
But the state police command has vowed to resist any fresh protest.
Daily Trust observed that the state command had deployed its men in strategic places in Lagos to foil any protest, at Alausa in Ikeja, parts of Awolowo Road, Ikeja Under-Bridge, Ikeja Along, among others.
The police command said it would resist any planned protest, procession or gathering under whatever guise in the metropolis, insisting that the government and residents were yet to overcome “the wounds sustained during the recent #EndSARS protests.”
The command’s spokesman, Muyiwa Adejobi, said intelligence gathered from relevant bodies indicated that “some unpatriotic elements or groups of people have concluded plans to orchestrate another set of violence in the state.”
He said a new group of protesters, under the guise of the recent #EndSARS was planning to stage another protest when the previous ones had been adjudged “as violent, dangerous and counterproductive.”
Why DSS ordered #EndSARS’ promoters’ bank accounts frozen, stopped foreign travel
Fresh facts have emerged that the embargo placed on the bank accounts of some leading supporters of the #EndSARS protests was the result of an instruction from the Department of State Services, DSS.
THEWILL gathered authoritatively that it was the DSS which ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to freeze the bank accounts of 19 persons and a firm found to be backing the protests.
The security service was also said to have directed the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, to stop several promoters of the protests from leaving or entering the country based on intelligence information that they were being used with or without their knowledge by both international and local conspirators to forcefully remove President Muhammadu Buhari from office.
Multiple sources familiar with the development said the DSS Director-General, Yusuf Magaji, who had been covertly monitoring the #EndSARS protests, advised the Presidency to immediately accede to the demands of the protesters because it got real-time intelligence that some unidentified persons had infiltrated them and wanted to use the protests to instigate the removal of the President from office.
It was further gathered that in the heat of the riots and tension that rocked the country, the DSS invoked national security concerns and asked the Central Bank Nigeria to freeze the bank accounts linked to some promoters of the protests because it believed they were being used to funnel cash to keep the protests going in order to sabotage the federal government.
The DSS, according to sources, also directed the Immigration Service to prevent some persons linked to the protests from leaving or entering the country without clearance from the agency as part of its investigations.
One dies as Ogun #EndSARS hoodlums clash
A yet-to-be-identified person has been shot dead during a clash involving Orimerunmu Boys and Asese Boys, in the Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State.
The PUNCH gathered that the unrest occasioned by the #EndSARS demonstration in the state prompted the hoodlums to block the Asese area of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, where they reportedly demanded cash from motorists plying the axis to their destinations.
It was learnt that a prominent man gave the hoodlums a huge sum of money but a fight was said to have broken out among the hoodlums.
A resident, who simply identified himself as Seyi, told our correspondent that during the clash, one of the hoodlums allegedly sustained bullet wounds and was taken to hospital for treatment, adding that another clash broke out when it was learnt that the injured victim died on Saturday.
He said, “The hoodlums blocked the Asese area of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway during the #EndSARS unrest and were collecting money from motorists plying the expressway.
When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said a manhunt had been launched for those responsible for the victim’s death, adding that normalcy had been restored in the area.
#ENDSARS: Police Take Stock Of Losses Nationwide
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has commenced proper documentation of the losses incurred in 17 states of the federation during the nationwide #EndSARS protests that was hijacked by hoodlums.
The evaluation process began at the weekend when the assessment committee set up by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, chaired by commissioner of Police (CP), Abutu Yaro, evaluated the damages recorded in 37 stations in Lagos State.
The IGP had set up the committee to properly document the losses suffered by the Force for the purposes of strategic planning, re-construction and re-equipment as well as for future references.
Speaking to LEADERSHIP on the level of work done so far, CP Yaro said the committee has covered Abuja and Lagos States since it was inaugurated on October 30, 2020, noting that 15 other states would be covered as well.
He explained that part of the committee’s job is to compile records of officers who died as well as those who were injured, visit the families of the affected officers, and compile records of arms and ammunition carted away by hoodlums who attacked the stations.
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