Send more Black Marias because we won’t stop protesting, Rinu Oduola dares Sanwo-Olu
Social justice activist Rinu Oduola has put the Babajide Sanwo-Olu government on notice.
“Sanwo-Olu, tell your boys to prepare more Black Marias, because we won’t stop demanding for justice,” Oduola tweeted moments ago after police beat and arrested several protesters at the Lekki tollgate.
The tollgate is the venue where Nigerian soldiers, after being invited by Sanwo-Olu, opened fire on protesters who were demanding an end to police brutality and waving the Nigerian flag on October 20, 2020. In a failed bid to wash his hands off the blood, the governor blamed it “forces beyond my direct control”.
Fresh protests erupted on Saturday after a panel set up to investigate the shooting and the allegations against the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) returned the facility to the Lekki Concession Company (LCC), a company critics linked to Sanwo-Olu’s godfather and former Lagos governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Protesters say LCC have no moral right to resume toll collection until the victims of police brutality and Lekki shooting get justice.
Oduola was a youth representative on the panel. But she stepped down on Friday and accused the Lagos government of cover-up following the decision to allow LCC repossess the Lekki Toll Plaza.
The government has responded to Saturday’s protest by brutalising demonstrators and ferrying them to prison in Black Marias. Security officers had to push one Black Maria before it could work, a poetic indication of the dysfunctional state of the country against which protesters agitate.
Popular comedian Mr Macaroni (real name: Debo Adebayo) was among those arrested. Police seized their phones so they could not continue streaming live videos from the Lekki tollgate.
“This is the legacy Babajide Sanwo-Olu is leaving behind — a legacy of oppression, tears and blood,” Oduola tweeted.
“They are not letting lawyers see the arrested protesters.
“The police said they have direct orders from the Lagos State governor to arrest protesters ans known frontliners of the EndSARS protests and will soon move them to Ikeja.
“Sanwo-Olu, are these forces beyond your control?”
