As Controversy Trails Planned Reopening of Lekki Toll Gate

Transport

In its bid to reopen the Lekki Toll Gate, the Lagos State government held consultations with residents and other stakeholders where it sought their understanding. However, a groundswell of mobilisation of the residents by human rights activists against the reopening may open an old sore with far-reaching economic and security consequences, reports Festus Akanbi 

Eighteen months after the bloody encounter between a detachment of troops from the Nigerian Army and some youths protesting a reign of terror unleashed on the nation by some officials of the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) at the Lekki Toll Gate, a new wave of tension appears to be brewing in Lagos following the move by the state government to reopen the toll gate amid strident protests from residents of Lekki area of Lagos against the move. 

The now-famous Lekki Toll Gate shooting and the attendant widespread violence forced the state government to direct the Lekki Concession Company (LCC), to suspend tolling activities to stave off further protest from the aggrieved members of the public.

However, the state government announced plans to reopen the Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge Toll Plaza and it pegged the planned opening for April 1. 

The state’s Commissioner for Information, Gbenga Omotoso, said operators of the facility had huge debts to pay.

Omotoso puts the debts at N11.6 billion to local lenders and about $31.1 million to foreign lenders. He also announced that about 500 workers with families to feed had been affected by the closure.

Negotiations

Consequently, the state government urged the people of the state, especially the residents of Lekki and Ikoyi, to show understanding ahead of the planned reopening of the Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge Toll Plaza by the LCC.

For a better understanding of the position of the state government, Omotoso and his counterparts in the transport ministry, Dr. Fredericks Oladehinde, as well as home affairs, Anofi Elegushi, laid the matter before the residents during a stakeholders’ meeting held last week at the Lekki Coliseum in Lekki Phase I, Lagos.

The meeting, which was held to engage key residents on LCC’s plan to reopen the Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge Toll Plaza, was attended by President of Lekki Estates Residents and Stakeholders Association (LERSA), Olorogun James Emadoye; human rights activists, the media and several other residents of Lekki, among others. 

They assured the residents that the state government would look into all the requests and recommendations made by the stakeholders and respond appropriately.

Omotoso enjoined the residents to show understanding of the government’s decision and to also respect the decision of the LCC to reopen the Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge Toll Plaza in April, a decision which some analysts described as a test run to the reopening of the Lekki toll gate. 

“Also, there are about 500 workers at LCC, about 90 per cent of them have been idle for the past 18 months and they have families to feed; they have friends and relations to attend to. So, for the company to want to return now, and like I said, people have shown tremendous understanding,” the commissioner said.

He alleged that people who have resisted the reopening of the Lekki toll gate are residents outside the country.

“They send messages from thousands of miles away asking people not to go there and pay a toll while saying all manners of unprintable things about the tollgate and others,” he said.

He added that if the company stays away from toll, “I do not know how it is going to pay its debts, I do not know-how about 500 workers, most of them young men who are just starting their families, I don’t know how they are going to be able to cope with their lives.”

Oladehinde said the decision of the government was not to punish people but to create an enabling environment for more jobs through private sector participation.

In his address, the Managing Director/CEO of LCC, Mr. Yomi Omomuwasan, said the resumption of operations was necessary for the company not to default on its payment of local and international loans, as well as to cater to the welfare of its workers.

He said LCC had also introduced new technology and innovations to move the toll plaza seamlessly and faster for commuters.

Opposition

However, the residents did not seem to buy the arguments of the government’s representatives at the parley, as they, in turn, sought the understanding of the state government for a stay of action on the reopening of the toll gate. 

Some of the residents complained of the prevailing harsh economic condition which they feared might aggravate the situation and lead to a further breakdown of law and order.

As temper rises, the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has condemned the planned reopening of the Lekki toll gate, threatening a protest if the government continues with the plan. Speaking at a press conference, Chairman of the human rights group, Kehinde Adeoye, Secretary, Bello Muftau, and another member, Ayo Ademiluyi, described as insensitive, the current moves by the Lagos State Government to reopen the Lekki Toll Gate for business.

Analysts said although it is unfortunate that the operators of the toll gate, the LCC have incurred some debts over the closure of the toll gate for 18 months, the state government would have exercised restraints in its bid to reopen the gate.

Taking People for Granted

A legal practitioner, Mr. Adesina Ogunlana said a sensitive government wouldn’t have taken its people for granted. He maintained that the decision of the government to give people 14 days period of grace before compelling people to start paying tolls showed the government had already made up its mind and was merely taking its time.

What is so special about that toll gate in Lagos? Ogunlana said, alleging that all the claims of budgeting for that road are highly exaggerated. 

“They have perfected the figures and no one understands the calculation. That they even have the temerity to consider the opening of that toll gate without implementing any aspects of the white papers. It means they are desperate to ride roughshod,” he said. 

He vowed that pro-democracy groups will vehemently oppose the reopening of the toll plaza, insisting that one doesn’t have to be a lawyer to understand constitutionalism. 

The Lekki Link Bridge the Lekki toll gate, according to him, is seen by the people as objects of exploitation. “The government will be reopening an old wound if it goes ahead with the planned reopening of the toll gate especially when none of the recommendations of the judicial panel of inquiries have been implemented,” he submitted.

Besides the activists who are protesting the reopening of the toll plaza, many observers have wondered about the continued justification for the toll gate when the state neither LCC nor the state government has added a single kilometre to the road.

“For me, I don’t know the continued justification for the toll gate when for over seven years, neither the LCC nor the state government has added a single kilometre to the road. When you travel on the Lekki-Epe Road, after Ajah, the road is in deplorable condition with potholes and no streetlights. Yet they collect tolls on the road.

“Remember that we were promised that they will rehabilitate the road further down, if not to Epe but after Ajah, what do we see, bad portions of the road,” said Adenike Fasua.

The tollgate was shut down following the 2020 deadly #EndSARS protests which saw men of the Nigerian Army open fire on unarmed protesters at the toll plaza.

 The nearby Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge, also operated by LCC, was similarly shut down after the incident.

The company, however, announced on Monday that it would resume activities link bridge on April 1. But the Lekki tollgate remains shut.

As it is, the onus lies with the Lagos State government to guarantee peace in the state, as analysts wondered why it is difficult to suspend the controversial tolling for now in the interest of peace, after all the Lagos State government owns 75 per cent share of the LCC.