#endSARS : And businesses went under lock and key again

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Its exactly one year after the Lekki shootings which was the peak of the #endSARS protests.This nationwide protest despite its loud message to the government on entrenching good governance and ending police brutality has had strong impacts on businesses.

The dust around the country has been raised in memory of the killings of protesters but the shops were deserted especially across Lagos and most cities across the country.
In Lekki, for example, most shops were under lock and key while their owners hanging around chit chatting with other protesters.

Chukwudi is a manager at a popular interior decoration showroom at the highbrow Adeola Odeku who said the experience last year left many lessons hence he had to close his office.

”Our experience last year wasn’t a pleasant one. We were so unlucky to have had our office at the hotspot of protests. It was difficult to differentiate between thugs and protesters.
“We lost about 2 million in sales that day but still better than some people whose shops were looted .Our own case was different because they were mostly heavy sets of chairs and all.
“I am not really protesting today but protecting my shop as we have some policemen hired to assist in maintaining some security around this area.
The case was not different at the Idowu Martins end of the area as some food vendors who usually made brisk sales were totally absent.
Many had expressed fear of an uprising after the incidence last year that left scores of businesses disrupted with many counting their losses.
KAFTANpost further surveyed the Ikate area of the road which also had shops, plazas and most especially auto shops locked.
A man who simply identified himself as Moses said he would remember the day negatively as one of the victims was shot in the area.
Though the protest marking the one year rememnerance of the 2020 shooting,it was abruptly ended by the arrival of the Lagos State Commissioner of Police ,Hakeem Odumosu who ordered a dispersal of the crowd.

The short duration of the protest however had left deep cuts in the flesh of businesses in Lagos State and the country at large.

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