February 17, (THEWILL) – The Ogun state Police Command has warned protesters against disrupting public peace on Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.
Spokesperson of the Command, SP Abimbola Oyeyemi, who issued the warning in a chat with newsmen on Friday, noted that while people had the right to peaceful protest, the disruption of public peace will not be tolerated.
“The police will not allow people to constitute nuisance by breaking the laws in the state”, he said.
The spokesman said all Area Commanders of Police had been deployed to maintain and restore peace on the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway.
THEWILL reports that angry protesters blocked the Sango-Ota, Ifo, Papa and Itori highways on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, over refusal of petrol stations to collect the old N500 and N1000 notes.
A commercial driver, Tope Bankole, said most petrol stations were the major cause of the protests because they refused to collect the old N500 and N1000 notes.
While President Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday, said the old N500 and N1000 notes ceased to be legal tender in the country, Bankole said he had over N130,000 of the N1000 notes, adding that he tried to used some of the money to buy petrol, but the old notes were rejected.
According to him, petrol stations are supposed to be collecting these old notes because the commercial drivers can only spend the money at filling stations.
“There would not have been problem if the filling stations were collecting the the old N500 and N1000 notes”, Bankole said.
One of the protesters, Ismail Sanni, said the protesters decided to express their grievances because of non acceptance of the old N500 and N1000 notes.
Sanni said the current cash crunch, inability to withdraw from the ATMs and rejection of the old notes had inflicted serious pains on the masses.
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