#EndBadGovernance: Lagos Govt, Police, Security Chiefs Warn Youths To Shelve Planned Protest

The Lagos State government has warned those behind the planned August 1, protest to shelve the idea as the state will not tolerate breakdown of law and order.

Also, the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Adegoke Fayoade has appealed to those behind the planned protest to shelve the idea in the interest of peace.

The appeal was made on Thursday at the POWA Secretariat, Ikeja, during a meeting with stakeholders in security, ethnic groups, religious, traditional, community, students and business communities.

The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, Fayoade advised parents, religious leaders and communities heads to warn their children not to be involved in the protest with faceless organisers.

According to him, ‘A faceless protest is dangerous and can lead to breakdown of law and order and the police will not fold their hands and watch hoodlums destroy property of tax payers.

“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 endsars protest that brought untold hardships to the populace.

We don’t want Nigeria to be seen by 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 breakdown of law and order and that’s why we are calling on religious leaders, local governments 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 violent is not the solution. We don’t want what happened in Kenya to happen in Lagos and Nigeria at large.”

Meanwhile,The Lagos State Director of Department of State Service, Dapo Amao said in the last two weeks the protest has caused a lot of panic and apprehension.

He said We are appealing to people to shalve 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 bad one kills and destroy let us give 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 organizers.”

Also, the Lagos State Commissioner for Youth and social development, Bolaji Ogunlende appealed to those behind to shelve their plan as it may cause more destruction than good.

He noted that the government of the state is concerned about the faceless people organizing the protest, noting that the town hall meeting was a proactive measure to check their activities and plans.

“Lagos State have also done a lot for the youths in the state and also empower them in various capacity and employ some of them into his government, we appealing to the faceless people to stop the protest.”