Only few people showed up on Friday for the widely publicised Occupy Lekki showdown, which was meant to protest the increase in toll by the Lekki Concession Company on the Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lagos.
Organisers of the protest had vowed to shut down Lekki on Friday with a massive crowd similar to the 2011 protest when the LCC began toll collection at its Admiralty Plaza on the expressway.
With a heavy presence of the police, the protest began two hours behind schedule when it became clear more crowd was not coming.
The protest organisers are calling for a reversal of the toll increase on the expressway, with placards demanding that the LCC should make its statement of account public to show how much it had collected in the last seven years.
The firm in a statement issued on January 26 announced the increase in the toll being charged at the Admiralty Circle Toll Plaza on the expressway and the Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge Toll Plaza with effect from Thursday, February 1, 2018.
This, it added, was to enable it to meet up with its loan obligations, stressing that the decision came after “extensive consultations held with stakeholders in the Eti-Osa/Lekki-Epe Expressway of Lagos State.”
During the Friday’s protest, some hoodlums stormed the location and started to attack journalists who were there to cover the protest. Protesters alleged that the hoodlums were sponsored.