Currency Crisis: Rioters block Lagos-Ibadan expressway as protest rocks Lagos

There is an ongoing tension in Lagos as protesters in their thousands have trooped out to block major roads in the city.

On the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, hundreds of commuters are currently stranded as protesters blocked the highway, burning tyres and threatening violence.

This is as a team of police officers from Mowe Police Station and soldiers have been busy dispersing them.

The rioters, who are raining curses on the Nigerian government, said the currency crisis currently rocking the country is biting harder.

As of 11 a.m. on Friday, many vehicles could neither move forward on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway nor return to Lagos as many barricades were set on the road, even as security operatives tried to disperse the rioters.

Speaking on the development, one of the stranded commuters and former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Osun State, Sikiru Ayedun, said the protest is a reflection of the hardship being suffered being suffered by Nigerians.

“This is just telling us the situation in our country. Things are hard; we have money but we can’t access it. You don’t expect things like this would happen and people would not react this way,” he said.

READ ALSO: As fuel scarcity bites harder, Nigerian govt assures of supply

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that soldiers and police were deployed to douse the riot that erupted in Mile 12, Ketu, Ojota area of Lagos on Friday over the scarcity of the new naira notes.

Many commuters on the Lagos-Ikorodu expressway had to flout traffic laws to reroute their movement.

The naira scarcity has led to violence in some parts of the country. On Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the continuous use of N200 notes until 10 April alongside the new notes.

He, however, insisted that the old N500 and N1,000 notes have ceased to be legal tenders, only saying the CBN would continue to accept them.