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Western Metal Products Company (WEMPCO) Group, owners of Lagos Oriental Hotel, has denied insinuations in some quarters that it is owned by the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

In a statement by Taiwo Alli, Executive Director Corporate Affairs, Wempco Group the hotel’s management said: “Western Metal Products Company (WEMPCO) Group, owners of Lagos Oriental Hotel, formally acknowledge that there was an attack on our property on October 20, 2020, when hoodlums armed with guns, knives and bottles, forcefully gained entrance to our facility, assaulted some of our security personnel and damaged properties.

“Unidentified individuals whose motives remain unknown to us have gone to town with a rather unfortunate narrative claiming that the Lagos Oriental Hotel is the investment of politicians, thereby exposing it to unwarranted attacks.

“Lagos Oriental Hotel is owned by the WEMPCO Group with 99percent shareholding. The WEMPCO Group of Companies was founded by businessman and entrepreneur Mr. K.F. Tung over fifty (50) years ago.

“The Lagos Oriental Hotel is a flagship in the Nigerian hospitality business but is not a flagship of the WEMPCO Group. It is an investment made by the Group in 2008, but not part of their core manufacturing business.

“At present, WEMPCO Group provides jobs for over 25,000 young Nigerians, affording them the opportunity to earn a living and gain useful experience. It is therefore unfortunate the attempt to disrupt our business and tarnish our image painstakingly built over the years.

“Speaking on the development, the Managing Director, Mr. Lawrence Tung noted that ‘like other responsible businesses operating in Nigeria, Lagos Oriental Hotel is hopeful that closure will be brought to cases of injustice identified in the country. It is however important to protect our businesses from unwarranted attacks by individuals who may not be aware of the facts around our existence.

‘We are fully cooperating with the authorities in their investigations into the remote and immediate causes of the incident that occurred on 20, October 2020 and assure our numerous clients and partners that we are working to ensure that normalcy returns to the hotel.”

The sad event that happened yesterday at the Lekki Toll gate in Lagos where armed soldiers were alleged to have killed unarmed young protesters is highly disheartening, regrettable and condemnable.

Our political leadership must immediately investigate the circumstances that led to the avoidable confrontation and consequent loss of lives with a view to swiftly fishing out the unlawful attackers who must be made to face the full wrath of the law.

Our children are on the streets with the spirit of patriotism because they believe in the future of Nigeria and that our system is flexible enough to adapt to changes for better performance.

We need to manage the process of listening to them and working with them to jointly arrive at the new Nigeria of our collective dreams.

Their generation was nurtured with the values of efficiency, transparency, accountability and value chains. These are the noble values they seek to inject into our polity so that our country can realise its potential as a world power.

It is time to calm down and allow traditional rulers, as fathers of the nation to lead the way to peace and restoration of trust. We must find amicable solutions even though this attack has regrettably eroded the trust needed to establish dialogue and ensure a civic process for resolving the crises. We must not be tired.

Patience and dialogue is needed to bring both parties to the table to set timelines for the implementation of the demands of the movement. This is imperative.

I call upon the government at all levels to demonstrate urgency and responsiveness by immediately acting on the yearnings of these patriotic Nigerians in order to facilitate a just and peaceful resolution of all the challenges confronting our country.
#ENDSARS
#ANewNigeria

#EndSARS Protesters Turn Benin-Lagos Expressway To Cooking Spots

The #EndSARS protesters in Benin on Saturday introduced a new dimension to the week-long agitation as they turned parts of the Benini-Lagos expressway to cooking spots at the pedestrians bridge by the University of Benin Main Gate.

The protesters, who barricaded the ever busy road on bothe ends set up emergency kitchen spots on road and cooked all sorts of delicacies, which they share freely among themselves in a communal and carnivalesque way.

The food items and condiments were said to have been donated by an unnamed person, who is sympathetic to the course Tue youths are championing.

Though the activity led to a gridlock on the busy highway, the cooking spree and the communal sharing by the demonstrating youths in their hundreds, was pictorial enough and entertaining in context.

Meanwhile, Edo State Commissioner of Police, mr. Babatunde Kokumo, has ordered the homicide section of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) to commence a full scale investigation into the immediate and remote cause of the Friday’s killing of a protester by gunmen around Ring Road, Benin.

The police boss vowed “to arrest the perpetrators of this dastardly act for prosecution in court accordingly.”

A statement issued by the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Mr. Chidi Nwabuzor, said the police boss “commiserates with the family members of the deceased for his untimely death and pray to God to give them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss. He however, appeals to the EndSARS protesters to end the protest and patiently wait for the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Mohammed Abubakar Adamu to implement the Police reforms.”

The demonstrators, apart from blocking the stretch of the Benin – Lagos expressway beginning from the old toll gate end to Uselu Market, a distance of about nine kilometers, also blocked the Ring Road, making travelers and commuters alike to detour to inner streets routes to find their way into and out of the city and within the heart of the city.

One of the protesters, Taiye Alao, told journalists that the protest had gone beyond the issue of #EndSARS.

“What we are asking for is not just end to SARS, we are saying Buhari must go, we are tired of his administration. The Buhari led government should resign, we need to fix Nigeria. We are we being oppressed in our own country, the politicians are oppressing us, we are in democracy and not democratic slavery, we can never be slaves in our own country”, he disclosed.

Dolapo Badmus, Yomi Shogunle snd others are dismissed from the police Force today on the grounds abuse of their profession.

From what we had from people they say these police people has always been fighting for the people, even though, there’s no one without flaws, but they support the people and have been exercising their duties diligently.

Except there’s something they are not aware of.

Against the backdrop of continued EndSARS protests across the country, the Nigerian Army has said it is ready to fully support the civil authority in whatever capacity to maintain law and order.

Army Headquarters also stated that troops are ready to deal with any untoward situation decisively.

The Army directed all it’s officers and soldiers, never to be distracted by those it called ‘anti-democratic forces and agents of disunity’.

This declaration was contained in a statement signed late last night by Col Sagir Musa, Acting Director, Army Public Relations, titled ‘Nigerian Army Remains Resolute to the Peace and Stability of the Nation’.

It reads, “The Nigerian Army (NA) wishes to reassure law-abiding citizens that it is highly committed to the sustenance of peace, security and defence of democracy in Nigeria.

“As a responsible and law-abiding organisation, the Nigerian Army reaffirms its unalloyed loyalty and commitment to the President, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari and the Constitution of the Country.

“The NA hereby warns all subversive elements and trouble makers to desist from such acts as it remains highly committed to defend the country and her democracy at all cost.

“The NA is ready to fully support the civil authority in whatever capacity to maintain law and order and deal with any situation decisively.

“All officers and men are directed never to be distracted by anti-democratic forces and agents of disunity.”