OPC, pro-Jonathan group paralyse Lagos

Members of the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, created scene Monday morning at the 7-Up end of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, in Oregun/Alausa area, as they gathered in preparation for anti-Jega protest and pro-rally for the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan.

OPC members who were believed to have come from different zones in Lagos and neighbouring states, were seen brandishing weapons such as cutlasses, guns, knives and others and occupied one side of the highway, harassing road users, including motorists and pedestrians.

The ethnic militia group members were also joined with some individuals, in black vest, believed to be FERMA/SURE-P personnel whose yard is located around the old toll gate area.

Their activities caused heavy traffic, especially, driving inward Alausa and from Olusosun to either Iyana Oworonsoki and Ojota axis, just as the protesters marched from the toll gate through Ikorodu road to the National Stadium, Surulere, the venue of the pro-Jonathan rally.

The anti-Jega protesters were also seen sharing and distributing flyers and leaflets, highlighting points against the INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega as well as why Jonathan deserves re-election into power.

It would be recalled the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, last Friday staged its anti-Jega and card readers protest in some South eastern states, including Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and other locations in the zone.

Similarly, the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, in a release Sunday announced that it had uncovered a plot by the Jonathan’s administration to release the sum of N9 billion for organizing protests against Professor Jega and card readers, to be spearheaded by the ex-militants and ethnic militia groups.

APC reacts

Meantime, Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has described the protest as “syndicated demonstration of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, being sponsored all over the country to disrupt the forthcoming general elections, which it is now convinced it cannot manipulate.”

The party said that the syndicated protests by MASSOB and OPC were desperate efforts by a dying government to create confusion and trouble so as to sabotage the election when it had become obvious to them that it had lost the support of Nigerians in the coming elections.

The state Publicity Secretary of the APC, Joe Igbokwe, while reacting to the development, noted that the sponsored campaigners went about destroying campaign posters and bill boards of the APC in their mercenary traits,

“This tells so much of the mission they are sponsored to do, ” he said.