By The Lekki Concession Company (LCC) has called for calm, appealing for the understanding of aggrieved Nigerians who resumed protest at the Lekki toll gate on Saturday, over its reopening.
Recall Popular Instagram comedian, Mr Macaroni, alongside other #OccupyLekkiTollGate protesters were arrested in the process by operatives of the Lagos State Rapid Response Squad (RRS).
In a press conference in Lagos on Monday, Managing Director of the LCC, Yomi Omomuwasan disclosed that the reopening was necessary to evaluate the extent of the damage done to its assets on the night of Tuesday, October 20, 2020.
He also cited the subsisting bank debts and the fate of its over 500 workers as compelling reasons the process ought to have begun.
“As of January 31, 2021, the outstanding debt liability from the local lenders is in the region of N11.6 billion and from the foreign lenders $31.1 million (USD), with the difference being the amount LCC has so far paid the lenders. It is important to say that, before the #ENDSARS protest, LCC had continued to meet up with servicing its loan obligations without default to the lenders.
“However, since the commencement of the #ENDSARS protest, the forceful takeover of the Admiralty Circle Toll Plaza and the unfortunate incident of Tuesday 20, October 2020, we have had to plead for moratorium repeatedly with our local and international lenders. It has been impossible to meet our loan repayment obligations- and obligations to our workers- given our inability to collect tolls, the main revenue source from which the repayment was contractually expected to come,” he said.
Omomuwasan said while LCC empathises with Nigerians who suffered one loss or the other during the #EndSARS protest, continuing to punish LCC whose facility was forcefully taken over by the protesters for whatever happened on October 20, 2020, would be a regrettable double whammy for the company.
He said: “Nowhere in the world is a company shut down indefinitely over an enquiry into an incident. We must bear in mind that as a business, we also have hundreds of workers, who have thousands of dependents, to take care of and monthly financial obligations to honour. Besides, evaluation and restoration require time, and further delay can only worsen the Company’s situation as a going concern.”
The LCC MD also disclosed that resumption of tolling at the Lekki toll gate could take “three or even six months” because of the extent of the damage done to the plaza.
“The assessment of things that are burnt will require a team of engineers from both the LCC and those working with us. What we operate is electronic tolling system that requires a lot of equipment to be brought together. We need to do this proper and critical assessment and it takes some time,” Omomuwasan said.
