July 03, (THEWILL) – Security operatives have surrounded the Gani Fawehinmi Park in Ojota, Lagos State, where the Yoruba Nation rally is scheduled to hold today.
A combined unit of OP MESA, Task Force, Rapid Response Squad and police officers numbering over 60, and men of the Lagos Neighborhood Safety Corps, are present around the vicinity of the park.
The security operatives who are fully armed are at the venue with armoured personnel carriers, Hilux trucks and others.
Just like Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota, another protest flashpoint, Allen Avenue Roundabout, was peaceful as road users went about their normal businesses under police watch.
No presence of demonstrators have been sighted in major parts of Lagos as at Press time.
Meanwhile, commuters on the Berger axis of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway suffered delay on Saturday morning as security operatives stopped passenger vehicles in search of Yoruba Nation agitators.
The security operatives also barricaded the expressway, limiting the number of vehicles that could gain access to Lagos.
The number of lanes inward Lagos State from Ogun State was reduced to two instead of four.
At Ketu, near the Gani Fawehinmi Park, security operatives also searched vehicles.
They also blocked the routes leading to the proposed venue of the protest and positioned vehicles at strategic locations.
The Lagos State Police Command had warned against the planned “Yoruba Nation” mega rally slated to hold this Saturday.
The rally had earlier been declared suspended by Sunday Igboho, following a raid by the Department of State Services, on his house.
He has also been declared wanted by the secret police for allegedly stockpiling arms.
But the umbrella body of Yoruba Self-Determination Groups, Ilana Omo Oodua, led by Second Republic Senator, Banji Akintoye, said there was no going back, adding that, “It is the duty of Police to ensure the rally is not hijacked by hoodlums.
“Our rally scheduled to hold on Saturday will still hold without any fear or intimidation and we promise to be peaceful like we have always been,” the Akintoye-led body wrote in a letter to the Commissioner of Police in the state, Hakeem Odumosu; and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Akintoye, Igboho and their apostles have been going across the South-West geopolitical zone to crusade their secessionist campaign, citing injustice meted out to the people of the region as well as worsening insecurity as reasons for their agitation, but the Federal Government has insisted on the unity and indissolubility of Nigeria.
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