Gbenga Omotosho: Lagos didn’t stop Landmark Centre from hosting #EndSARSMemorial summit

Gbenga Omotosho, Lagos commissioner for information, says the state government did not stop Landmark Event Centre from hosting the #EndSARSMemorial summit.

Last week, Mr Macaroni, the social media comedian, had announced that there would be an event on October 20 to mark the anniversary of the shooting of protesters at the Lekki tollgate.

Landmark was announced as the venue for the event themed the ‘Soro Soke Summit’.

Days after the announcement, the comedian revealed that the event had been sabotaged.

He said the venue had cancelled arrangements, adding that “powers from above” had warned them against hosting the event.

Reacting to the accusation in a chat with Arise TV on Tuesday, Omotosho said “it’s very wrong” to say the state government is involved.

He narrated how Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, called “the owner of the centre” and it was established that the summit was cancelled based on “purely business decision”.

Omotosho said “some of these #EndSARS people” approached the governor to report the cancellation.

“I would not want to mention their names, but I know them, and they’re some of the guys you all know,” he said.

“And they said Landmark stopped them and returned their money. The governor called the owner of the centre.

“I was listening and put the phone on speaker, and he said, ‘Mr, Paul, when last did I talk to you?’ And the guy said, ‘several months ago’. Then the governor said, ‘have I ever discussed with you that some people are coming to your place and you should stop them from doing whatever they want to do there?’ And the man said, ‘no’.

“The governor now asked, ‘then, why did you stop them and why are they saying the government told you to stop them?’ And the man said, ‘we don’t know who is saying that government stopped us from allowing them, but the government has nothing to do with this, and it’s a pure business decision that we took to safeguard our customer, property because we don’t know where this could end, like what happened last October’.”

The commissioner added that it is “very wrong for anybody to assert that the Lagos state government stopped Landmark or any other event centre from allowing protesters to do whatever they want to do in their facilities”.