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The Lagos State government has flooded the streets with men of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) and Lagos State Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences Unit (Task Force) on the eve of the nationwide hunger and hardship protest.
Barring any eleventh-hour twist, Nigerians across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will troop out for the 10-day protest from Thursday, August 1, 2024.
Dubbed the 'End Bad Governance in Nigeria' protest, aggrieved Nigerians are planning to use the demonstrations to register their disaffection with the federal government over the state of the economy.
However, the Lagos State Government has been making efforts to prevent the planned protest from snowballing into chaos and anarchy as predicted by security agencies.
On Tuesday, July 30, 2024, the government secured a court injunction, restricting the planned protest to just two locations - Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park in Ojota and the Peace Park in Ketu - in the state.
Lagos floods streets with RSS, Task Force
Meanwhile, as seen on the streets of Lagos on Wednesday, police officers of the RSS and men of the Task Force engaged in patrol exercises hours before the protest gets underway.
The operation commenced from Alausa, Ikeja through the old Tollgate, Ojota, Ogudu, and Iyana Oworo to the Third Mainland Bridge axis.
Some heavily armed officers were also seen matching through Lekki streets to the Lekki Tollgate area.
The RRS was led by its Commander, CSP Shola Jejeloye while the Task Force was captained by its Chairman, CSP Adetayo Akerele.
According to a statement on its X account on Wednesday morning, the RRS described the exercise as a "joint visibility patrol and fitness walk" in readiness for emergencies in the state.