14th February, 2018
PRESS STATEMENT
We of the Lagos
State Chapter of the Socialist Party of Nigeria express our solidarity with the
Friday, 9th February, 2018 mass action organized by the Anti-Lekki
Tolling Movement of the Eti-Osa Development Forum against the unjust and
arbitrary hike in toll fees collected by the Lekki Concession Consortium, the
concessionaire company and partner of the Lagos State Government in the
concessioning of the 42 kilometre Lekki-Epe expressway. It will be recalled that on the 1st
day of February, 2018, the duo of the anti-masses All Progressives Congress-led
Lagos State Government and the fat-cat Lekki Concession Consortium slammed a
unilateral, unbearable and astronomical increment of the obnoxious tolls on the
mass of residents of the Lekki metropolis.
We condemn in
strongest terms the attempt of both the outrightly savage Lekki Concession
Consortium and the anti-masses All Progressives Congress-led Lagos State
Government to discredit the genuine struggle of residents of the Eti-Osa
cosmopolitan area. We condemn the sponsorship of thugs and hoodlums to attack
the peaceful mass protest of innocent Nigerians. We call on the Commissioner of
Police, Lagos State Command and the Area Commander, Area “J” Command
Headquarters, Ajah, Lagos State to speedily arraign the arrested hoodlums who
attacked peaceful protesters and law-abiding journalists who were on their
lawful duty of covering the mass protest.
We view the
latest increase of the tolls as a confirmation of our longstanding position
that the outright neo-liberal private concessioning of public roads to
private profiteers is an anti-poor and pro-rich capitalist agenda that will
blow no good. We hold that despite the concessioning of the 42 kilometre
expressway which was built with public funds by the erstwhile Lateef Jakande
regime of Lagos State Government, two toll gates have been imposed and less
than 50 percent of the expressway is motorable.
We are in support
of the demands of the Anti-Lekki Tolling Movement’s demand for the total
cancellation of the two tolling centres, both the Lekki Bridge Toll Gate and
the Admiralty Plaza Toll Gate. We also
support the demand of the Movement for an independent financial audit of the
Lekki Concession Consortium from inception till date vis-à-vis a review of
current status of Lagos State Government in relation to Lekki Concession
Consortium with the re-purchasing of the concessioning agreement in 2013. We also demand the constitution of an independent
panel of stakeholders including but not limited to representatives of
Anti-Lekki Tolling Movement and Eti-Osa Development Forum in the panel.
We are quick to
add that the Anti-Lekki Tolling Movement must add to its charter of demands the
demand for revocation of the concessioning agreement without further delay. We
also call for the upgrading and
completion of the entire Lekki-Epe expressway with motorable internal roads and
proper drainage.
We want to submit
that in order for us to win these demands, we must be prepared to build
sustained mass actions until victory. While we welcome the plan for another
mass action with occupation on Friday, 23rd February, 2018 by 8am tagged
#OperationBringYourMatandSleepattheTollGate, we are of the view that there is
need for MASS MEETINGS to be convened across communities in the Lekki
Metropolis to discuss how to build and sustain the mass actions. We hold that
it is within the democratic forum of the mass meetings that the issues of the
printing of fliers, stickers and souvenirs, continuous media mobilization and
other logistics to win the struggle can be democratically discussed and finance
also collectively planned.
We are of the
view that our collective struggle can only find a lasting victory if it is
linked to the struggle for a democratic, egalitarian and socialist working people’s
framework of governance as against the anti-masses, wherein the resources of
society would be democratically discussed and disbursed to meet the essential
needs of all including but not limited to all public roads as against the pro-profiteers’
neo-liberal model being exercised by the All-Progressives’ Congress Lagos State
Government which subjects the mass of
the people to double extortion, first through multiple unjustifiable taxation
and daily road tolls’ payment. We of the
Socialist Party of Nigeria defend this political programme and when elected to
power would run governance on this basis and we urge all that are genuinely
dissatisfied with the current maladjusted framework to join the Socialist Party
of Nigeria today.
Moshood Osunfurewa
State Secretary
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