OPC stages anti-Boko Haram protest in Lagos.
Members of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) has caused a stir in Lagos as they marched on the city.
They were protesting against the general insecurity in the country, especially the terrorist activities of the Boko Haram (Western education is sin), OPC leader Dr Frederick Fasehun said.
The socio-cultural organisation’s members who turned out in a large numbers –estimated to be almost a thousand marched from the old toll gate through Ojota, Maryland, Ikorodu Road and Ojuelegba to the National Stadium where the procession terminated with a rally.
As they marched on the major highway, they brandished guns and other weapons.
They shot sporadically into the air, causing panic and fear among pedestrians and motorists.
The long procession was trailed by a long convoy of vehicles inside which some of the OPC members sat, according to eye witnesses.
The traffic build-up on the eight-home Ikorodu Road extended to other parts of the city, disrupting movement.
At Maryland, the OPC members had an encounter with some officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) and some policemen who refused their attempt to drive against the traffic. Again, there was shooting by the OPC members.
Some motorists abandoned their vehicles and fled because they mistook the OPC men for armed robbers. The ensuing confusion aggravated the traffic chaos.
Dr Fasehun told our reporter on the telephone that the march was “to protest against all those things that are distasteful to Nigeria, including insecurity, unemployment and terrorism”.
He denied that his men shot intermittently into the air.“We started from the toll gate and ended the procession at the National Stadium. We held a rally to protest the inability of the government to address some issues of national importance that we raised in the past.
“There was no shooting anywhere and they did not have an encounter with anybody,” he chief stressed.The co-ordinator of the organisation Gani Adams, disassociated himself from the procession.
he said: “This is to inform the general public that we are not part of the mayhem going on in 7UP-Ojota-Ojuelegba axis.“The so-called protest/rally does not have my support.”
Lagos police spokesman Samuel Jinadu declined to speak on the rally.But a Senior Police Officer said the protest was peaceful and that the OPC men merely called for the end to Boko Haram’s bombings and the stoppage the terrorist activities.
Also in Lagos, three persons were feared dead, as factions of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), battle for control of the motor park at Mafoluku-Airport Road.
Many others were injured. The clash, which grounded traffic on Airport Road, lasted for some hours as hoodlums from Mafoluku-Oshodi, stormed 7and 8 Bus Stop, on the road, in a bid to take over the park.
Members of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) has caused a stir in Lagos as they marched on the city.
They were protesting against the general insecurity in the country, especially the terrorist activities of the Boko Haram (Western education is sin), OPC leader Dr Frederick Fasehun said.
The socio-cultural organisation’s members who turned out in a large numbers –estimated to be almost a thousand marched from the old toll gate through Ojota, Maryland, Ikorodu Road and Ojuelegba to the National Stadium where the procession terminated with a rally.
As they marched on the major highway, they brandished guns and other weapons.
They shot sporadically into the air, causing panic and fear among pedestrians and motorists.
The long procession was trailed by a long convoy of vehicles inside which some of the OPC members sat, according to eye witnesses.
The traffic build-up on the eight-home Ikorodu Road extended to other parts of the city, disrupting movement.
At Maryland, the OPC members had an encounter with some officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) and some policemen who refused their attempt to drive against the traffic. Again, there was shooting by the OPC members.
Some motorists abandoned their vehicles and fled because they mistook the OPC men for armed robbers. The ensuing confusion aggravated the traffic chaos.
Dr Fasehun told our reporter on the telephone that the march was “to protest against all those things that are distasteful to Nigeria, including insecurity, unemployment and terrorism”.
He denied that his men shot intermittently into the air.“We started from the toll gate and ended the procession at the National Stadium. We held a rally to protest the inability of the government to address some issues of national importance that we raised in the past.
“There was no shooting anywhere and they did not have an encounter with anybody,” he chief stressed.The co-ordinator of the organisation Gani Adams, disassociated himself from the procession.
he said: “This is to inform the general public that we are not part of the mayhem going on in 7UP-Ojota-Ojuelegba axis.“The so-called protest/rally does not have my support.”
Lagos police spokesman Samuel Jinadu declined to speak on the rally.But a Senior Police Officer said the protest was peaceful and that the OPC men merely called for the end to Boko Haram’s bombings and the stoppage the terrorist activities.
Also in Lagos, three persons were feared dead, as factions of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), battle for control of the motor park at Mafoluku-Airport Road.
Many others were injured. The clash, which grounded traffic on Airport Road, lasted for some hours as hoodlums from Mafoluku-Oshodi, stormed 7and 8 Bus Stop, on the road, in a bid to take over the park.
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