As preparations intensify for the protest set for October 1, 2024, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Olanrewaju Ishola, convened a town hall meeting with stakeholders and security agencies at the police headquarters in Ikeja. This was disclosed in a video shared by the Lagos State Command on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday.
According to reports, one of the protest organizers in Lagos, Hassan Taiwo, the National Coordinator of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), was also invited to the meeting. However, Taiwo, also known as “Soweto,” stated that he was unable to attend due to late notification. “The meeting is for 4 p.m. I just got the information this morning,” he explained in a conversation.
Meanwhile, in Oyo State, the police have invited the state chairman of the African Action Congress (AAC), Kayode Babayomi, to a “peace meeting,” following the party’s declaration of support for the upcoming protest. The invitation letter, signed by Assistant Commissioner of Police, State Intelligence Department, Martins Bamigboye, was sent to Babayomi on Friday, inviting him to the meeting scheduled for Saturday.
The letter read, “The Oyo State Police Command, in line with its constitutional security responsibilities, is committed to excellence in achieving a safe and secure environment for peaceful coexistence in the state. It is in light of the above that you are respectfully invited to a peace meeting with the Assistant Commissioner of Police on Saturday, September 28, 2024.”
The protest, scheduled for Nigeria’s 64th Independence Day on October 1, has been tagged “FearlessInOctober” by the Take It Back Movement. The organizers described the demonstration as a continuation of the August nationwide rally against “bad governance” and rising hunger across the country.
In a joint statement on Thursday, the ERC and other groups noted, “None of the demands from our 10 days of rage in August have been met. We believe October 1 should be a day for all suffering Nigerians to unite and fight for survival by demanding an end to these anti-poor policies.”
