As Wole Soyinka joins thank you rally, SNG says no going back

The Save Nigeria Group has said there is no going back on the planned thank you rally scheduled for the Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota, Lagos tomorrow.

 Spokesman of the group, Yinka Odumakin, told The Eagle Online in a telephone interview that the group would defy the order of the police not to hold the rally “because we are in a democracy that guarantees all of the rights we are pursuing.”

The SNG is planning the rally to say thank you to Nigerians for coming out in their millions to protest the recent increase in the cost of petrol from N65 to N97.

The Convener of the group, Pastor Tunde Bakare, said at a press conference on Wednesday that there was the need to appreciate the response of Nigerians to the call to oppose the move of the Federal Government to further impoverish them while government officials lived large.

But the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Police Command, Yakubu Alkali, has said that no one has been granted the permission to stage any rally, not even the SNG that applied.

As first reported by The Eagle Online before the commissioner made his position known openly, the police intends to stop tomorrow’s rally.

Indeed, more military personnel and equipment have been drafted to the Ojota/Ketu axis of Lagos to prevent anyone from having access to the Gani Fawehinmi Park.

Photographs from around the park today will soon be available on this site shortly.

This was in spite of the attempts by the military personnel to stop our photojournalist from capturing the mood around the area.

He was held hostage briefly by the military personnel, led by a naval officer.

Odumakin told The Eagle Online: “We are going ahead with our victory and thank you rally tomorrow. We won’t be cowed by anyone. If we could fight a military government to a logical conclusion, then dealing with a democratically elected government shouldn’t be a problem.”

He told The Eagle Online that Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has flown into the country to be a part of the rally.

Odumakin, who would not disclose the take-off point of the rally on the telephone because his line is being monitored by security agents, said that all arrangements had been concluded for a peaceful rally that would drive home, again, the points the group has been making over the years.