The sun had barely climbed over Lagos when tear gas canisters hissed through the morning air in Oworonshoki.
Thirteen protesters hit the ground, coughing, as police scattered a rally meant to spotlight families left homeless by government bulldozers.
Their leader? Nowhere in sight, yet his name rang out hours later from the lips of the state’s top cop.
Commissioner Olanrewaju Moshood Jimoh stood beneath the Third Mainland Bridge, flanked by rifle-toting officers, and delivered a bombshell no one saw coming.
Watch full video of The Commissioner here
“Omoyele Sowore is wanted,” he declared, voice steady, eyes scanning the horizon. “Report to the nearest station. We are closing in.”
The charge? Plotting to choke Lagos’ lifeline artery with bodies and banners, turning a six-lane marvel into a parking lot of rage.
Jimoh painted a grim picture, gridlock for days, ambulances trapped, commuters stranded. “A serious felony,” he called it.
Intelligence, he said, had traced the plan straight to Sowore’s phone. The activist had flown in from Abuja, police claimed, then ghosted the scene, filming from a tinted SUV while his followers faced the smoke.
Sowore fired back faster than a Lagos danfo overtakes a go-slow. From Abuja, yes, still Abuja, he posted a defiant note.
“They couldn’t shoot on sight, so they slap a ‘wanted’ tag,” he wrote, branding the Inspector General “illegal” and daring the commissioner to a face-off.
Old wounds reopened instantly. Sowore’s rap sheet with the state is thicker than Lagos traffic, #EndSARS, #RevolutionNow, endless courtrooms.
This time, though, the battlefield is personal. Demolitions in Oworonshoki aren’t just concrete and dust; they’re shattered roofs over grandmothers’ heads.
Government insists compensation reached every rightful owner. Activists whisper the payouts never left the ledger.
By dusk, roadblocks mushroomed across the city. Lekki Tollgate, Freedom Park, every bridge, patrol vans idled like sentinels.
Thirteen arrests became fourteen names on a charge sheet. Sponsors, police hinted, lurk in shadows yet to be lit.
Social media split like cracked asphalt. #FreeSowore trended alongside memes of the commissioner’s grin, equal parts swagger and warning.
One X user quipped, “Sowore in a car, CP on a bridge, Lagos na movie.”
But beneath the banter, a city held its breath. Will the activist stroll into a station, arms raised in mock surrender? Or will Lagos wake to barricades and burning tires?
For now, the Third Mainland Bridge hums on, oblivious to the storm brewing in its shadow.
One man, one megaphone, one wanted poster, and a megacity teetering on the edge of another headline.
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