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Sunday, December 18, 2011

Nigerian Stars Support Lekki Protest And Why We Fired Shots...By Police

Nigeria's notable music and Nollywood stars on Saturday joined hundreds of Lekki residents to protest the exorbitant tolls to be charged on the Lekki-Epe expressway.

While some were spotted marching with the protesters, others took to their social network pages to show support for the protest.

Omawumi Megbele, Nigerian pop star, did not show up at the event but she tweeted her support for the protest.


"I am against Lekki toll," Omawumi tweeted. "They (government) should find another way to pay for the road! Not from people who are struggling to survive."

"Lekki toll is inevitable," Lanre Dabiri, better known as Eldee tha Don, also tweeted. "It is the price that should be adjusted. Average family will spend about N20-30k/month getting through. That's a lot."

Kate Henshaw joined the protest march and was reportedly brutalised by thugs of the Action Congress of Nigeria and police officers who cracked down on the peaceful protesters.

The raging thugs and police officers brutally attacked both the protesters and journalists.

"Even Compass Newspaper and Associated Press photojournalists were brutalised and their cameras and IDs seized by the police," an eyewitness said.

According to eyewitnesses, the protest started out peacefully until thugs believed to be members of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) attacked the protesters with machetes and sticks.

The Lekki Toll Road Concession is a public private partnership scheme between the Lagos State Government and the LCC.

LCC had announced it would begin tolling the road on Sunday, December 18, sparking widespread protest by residents.

The residents complain that the tolls to be collected by the private company, over the next 30 years at three locations within 25km, are too exorbitant.


Meanwhile, an unconfirmed report had it that one person later died as a result of bullet wound he sustained during the incident. The police claimed, last night, to have fired gunshots  into the air to disperse the protesters because they were armed.

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