#EndSARS Anniversary: Dismantle Admiralty, Lekki-Ikoyi toll gates for peace to reign

As youth groups in Lagos prepare to mark the first anniversary of #EndSARS, Lagosians, under the aegis of Omo Eko Pataki, have called on the state government to dismantle the toll booths on both the Admiralty Circle and the Lekki-Ikoyi bridge, to ensure peace and genuine reconciliation.

Trustee of the group, Major General Tajudeen Olanrewaju (rtd), a former General Officer Commanding (GOC), Third Armoured Division of the Nigerian Army, made the call in a release titled: “Lessons of Endsars: A Year After.

Olanrewaju said the toll points have become objects of hate and therefore should be removed.

“The Lagos State government should remove the toll booths on both the Admiralty Circle and the Lekki-Ikoyi toll gates.

“The toll gates were and are still objects of hate and aversion among commuters and motorists,” he said.

The former Minister of Communications, posited that the lesson to learn from the #EndSARS protest of last year, based on his own background and experience as a war general in the Nigerian Civil War, was that nothing meaningful can be achieved through violence, adding that pursuit of unity and peace for the country should be key.

He argued that it would be insensitive and wrong on the part of the state government to bring back the toll gates as they would add to the economic challenges Lagosians, rich and the poor, are grappling with at this time.

READ: Lagos #EndSARS panel divided on reopening of Lekki toll gate

“At a time of great economic crisis when the rich and the poor are feeling the harshness of a depressed economy, it will be insensitive and wrong to bring back the toll gates which no doubt will add to the economic misfortunes of our people.

“Transporters will increase their fares; Traffic gridlocks will return, stretching from Ozumba Mbadiwe to Ajah and from Alexander in Ikoyi backing up to the Third mainland bridge. Man-hours will be wasted. Motorists often collapse in the heat and emission of choking carbon monoxide. Surely, this is not what we want,” Olanrewaju said.

Besides, the former minister described the Lekki axis as an unplanned and increasingly growing city with only one exit and one entrance, saying that there was hardly any manufacturing plant or any major industries there, save vast estates and various residential abodes.

He noted that Lagos was about the only major metropolis on earth where there are two intracity toll gates, whereas elsewhere toll gates are located between cities, adding that the danger with such in Lekki-Ikoyi axis “is that the road is perpetually clogged, entrapping motorists in a permanent gridlock thereby creating opportunities for roving robbers and outlaws who rob both commuters and motorists at will.”

The elder statesman, therefore, called on the state government to use its resources to build alternative roads to alleviate the pains and anguish of commuting on the Lekki axis, urging that the long-proposed Fourth Mainland Bridge and the seemingly abandoned Metroline which former Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola started should be resuscitated to open the Lekki corridor.

Massive traffic as #EndSARS protesters take over Lekki toll gate