Former Deputy National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, who is also chairman, Omo Eko Pataki, a group comprising prominent indigenes of Lagos, has frowned at the attempt by the state government to bring toll gates back at this time when the ordinary Lagosian can hardly afford three square meals a day, among others, describing the move as cruel, insensitive, vicious, totally unacceptable and misgovernance of the worst scale.
The Lekki Concession Company Limited (LCC), a few days ago, said it would resume activities at the Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge Toll Plaza by April 1.
The announcement came 18 months after the Toll Plaza was shut down due to the police brutality during the October 2020 #EndSARS protest in the state.
George expressed this concern at the weekend at a press conference which took place at his Ikoyi office, saying the planned return of toll gates, which he alleged was “obviously sanctioned” by a political godfather for political purpose, was rather sad and sickening, in this time of grave moral challenges, and does not portray an enlightened leadership” and also does not exemplify a selfless shepherding.
“It is rather sad and sickening, in this time of grave moral challenges, when the ordinary Lagosian can hardly find three square meals a day; when the commuters cannot afford the fare of transportation; when parents cannot afford the sky-rocketing school fees for their children; when the ordinary tenants can hardly pay their annual rent.
“Behold! Behold! Behold! this is the unsavoury time that the government of Lagos State has chosen to impose more burden on the average Lagosian. They want to bring the toll gates back!
“It is cruel, insensitive, vicious, totally unacceptable. It is misgovernance of the worst scale. It does not exemplify a selfless shepherding. It does not equate to an exemplary reference of salvaging truth. It does not reflect a conscionable concern of elected leadership,” George said.
George, who is also the Atona Oodua of Yorubaland, while declaring that Omo Eko Pataki, which he led was totally against the return of toll gates in the state, said: “We say No! We say No! We say No! O to ge o! O to ge o! O to ge o!”
This was just as he reiterated his group’s four demands earlier made that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration should outrightly scrap and dismantle the two toll gates in the state, erect in lasting permanence a befitting memorial for the patriots who lost their lives on October 20, 2020, pay necessary compensation to the families of the deceased, and henceforth declare October 20, 2020, as patriot’s day in eternal remembrance of the #Endsars heroes.
The PDP chieftain, while asserting that his group, Omo Eko Pataki, remained non-partisan and held adherence to no group or sectarian bias, declared that members were “free-born Lagosians who hold the heritage of our state as sacrosanct and inviolable.”
Speaking further, he described the planned return of the toll gates as “a bad hasty decision at a very bad time,” saying this was so as Lagosians have woken upcoming barely two years when the authorities “mowed down innocent youths at the Lekki Toll Gates, when innocent youths, young men and women, shed their blood for the unity of this nation.”
He vowed that Omo Eko Pataki would pursue its demands through all legitimate, including legal and valid means to ensure that the truth prevailed, righteousness validated; “and the majesty of the light is brightened across our state.”
“We seek no fight with anyone, but justice. We seek no quarrel with anyone, but the truth. We seek no engagement with anyone, but the accommodation of what is right, and what is just.
“Our appeal is to the greater input of humankind. We do not ask for mercy; we ask for justice. We do not ask for help; we ask for justice. We do not ask for beggarly pleas; we ask for what is right,” Chief George said.
“Finally, We are not afraid of a good fight. We will not stop. We will never yield. We will never rest until justice prevails upon our ancestral soil,” he vowed.
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