A civil right organisation, the Save Lagos Group (SLG) has fixed July 10, 2018 as the date when its members and those of other civil society organisations would storm the Secretariat of the Lagos State Government located in Alausa, Ikeja to protest the hike in payment for land use by residents of the state.

According to the group, the picketing, which is expected to last for a month is also to protest the huge amount of fees payable as well the condition of bail applicable to litigants in the various courts under the jurisdiction of the state government.

Making the disclosure in a statement issued on Friday by the Convener of the Save Lagos Group, Comrade Adeniyi A.Sulaiman, who stated that the decision was arrived at after a delegate meeting of members in Lagos on Friday.

According to Sulaiman, the group the date was fixed to coincide with the 19th anniversary of the murder of five student leaders of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State Nigeria.

The students who were killed by some suspected cultist on campus included the then Secretary of the Students’ Union, Mr. George Iwilade (popularly known as Afrika), Mr. Ekede Efe, Tunde Oke, Yemi Ajiteru and Eviano Ekelemu.

In the statement issued by the media office of the group, Sulaiman added that so far, no fewer than 200 civil organizations within and outside the state have signified their intention to join the move tagged “Occupy Alausa for the good of Lagosians”.

According to Sulaiman, “The group has decided to do a month-long occupation of Alausa Secretariat in honour of these comrades who gave up their lives in the course of the struggle; the battle that these noble comrades waged is similar to the one being waged by the good people of Lagos against this tyrannical government led by Mr Akinwunmi Ambode.

“Since he came to power, Ambode has continued to implement programmes and policies that are antithetical to the wellbeing of the people of the state. One of the programmes and policies include the obnoxious review of the Land Use Act which hiked fees payable to the state government by the already traumatized people of the state by about 100 per cent.”

He added: “We are also going ahead with the plan to protest the condition usually attached to bail being granted by courts in the state. The sundry fees to be paid by litigants who are granted bail by the courts are in most cases exorbitant, thus making the tree prisons located in the state congested as many of the inmates are victims of the various bail conditions.”

Sulaiman added that the huge number of inmates in these prisons have caused many of them (the inmates) to die prematurely owing to the filthy condition of the affected prisons.

On the state of schools’ infrastructure, the activist added that though the organization has received assurances from the state government that the schools would receive the needed facelift, nothing, however, has been done to address the decay.

“This notice is also to draw the needed attention to the plights of our kids in the various schools across the state. We have had enough of assurances without any concrete effort to address the issues of the decay in the schools’ infrastructure. The state government has not demonstrated enough good faith in keeping to its promise and our patience has run out,” the group stated.

Sulaiman used the occasion to commend residents of state whom he stated are bearing the brunt of misrule with a call on them to be steadfast in the collection of the permanent voter card (PVC) in readiness for voting out the current government in the state whom he stated have become a burden on them.

While wishing Muslim faithful Ramadan Kareem on the commencement of fasting in the Holy Month of Ramadan, Sulaiman said, “This would give the residents of the state the opportunity to change the propagandist changers who have become a burden on them.” He added that the group had deliberately waited this long for the commencement of the Occupy Alausa because of the last Easter celebrations and the current Ramadan fasting month saying he had received several calls from Nigerians after a recent radio programme he attended on Wednesday 16th of May 2018 at Inspiration FM in Victoria Island, Lagos.

“We have been asked by Lagosians to say when the Occupy Alausa would begin and we told them that our actions would be strictly based on injunction from the two holy books of the Bible and Quran as contained in Shuratul-AL-BAQARAH; Q: 2 vs. 189-194 which specifically restricts religious practitioners to give an honour to these five months, 1, SHAWAL, 2, DHUL-QA’DA, 3.DHUL-HIJJA, MUHARAM and RAMADAN.

He added that this is further buttressed by a verse in the Holy Bible, specifically in Mathew Chapter 22, verse 21 which states “To him, Caesar” and he said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar, the things that are of Caesar and to God the things that are God’s”.

In concluding, Sulaiman stated that the press statement should serve as the needed notice to all relevant security agents in the state, particularly the police, saying, “They should not expect any formal notice from us again as we are covered by Sections (40 & 41) of the ‘FRN’ 1999 Constitution (as amended) and several judgments obtained by late legal icon, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN, SAM) for obtaining police permit.”

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