By
Chris Paul Otaigbe, in Lagos
Defying massive deployment of security agents at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, a handful of Nigerians came out Monday in Nigeria’s commercial capital to be part of the #RevolutionNow protest called by Global Coalition for Security and Democracy in Nigeria. They were however, quickly dispersed by security agents.
Save for the Lagos “failed” protest, reports from across the country indicated business as usual as the call for protest went largely unheeded.
The Lagos protesters would have gained access into the National Stadium complex but for the barricading of the arena, which forced the over 50 demonstrators to gather under the stadium bridge, where they started singing and demanding from the police access into the stadium.
Subsequently, the police requested for reinforcement and five patrol vans filled with heavily armed mobile policemen surfaced, who began to fire Tear gas as passersby and protesters ran for safety.
The security agents, including the police and army were stationed at the National Stadium, Teslim Balogun, Surulere and at the National Theatre, Iganmu and Gani Fawehinmi Park on Ikorodu road, Ojota.
Normalcy was quickly restored at the scene and members of the public were going about their business peacefully.
All efforts to get the police spokesman’s reaction on number of arrests made during the aborted protest were not successful.
But some sources said persons were arrested in front of the National stadium.
Early morning, Monday 5th August, Protesters converged at the National Stadium in disobedient to the warning given by the Nigeria Police Force to stop such a demonstration.
However, for a protest procession that was planned for 6.30-7am, the protesters came and met a fierce looking detachment of arm bearing police and soldiers at the gate of the stadium to stop the protest march.
Undeterred, the protesters continued at another area of the stadium axis, to continue their demonstration, chanting revolution songs and this led to a stiff pushback by the security Agencies.
Not long after the commencement of the protest, the security agents descended on the protesters with the police firing tear gas canisters to disperse the handful of defiant protesters.
Some of the protesters were injured in the ensuing chaos, while some were arrested by police officers.
In his address to the press after the crowd had been dispersed, Assistant Commissioner of police,Tijani Fatai, said the gathering was illegal.
He said none of the organizers consulted or contacted the Police to seek permission to embark on the protest, peaceful or non-peaceful.
“So, it’s an unlawful assembly, and an unlawful assembly has to be dislodged,” he said.
He added that the Police has the capacity to sustain suppression of the planned protests.
Among their list of demands was the release ofOmoyele Sowore, the convener of the protest who was arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS) on Saturday, August 3.
The DSS and the Federal Government accused Sowore, a candidate in February’s presidential election,of plotting to forcefully overthrow the government.
In other parts of the country, the protest either failed to materialize or failed woefully.
In Osogbo, Osun State capital, armed police and Department of State Security (DSS) operatives stopped members of #RevolutionNow group from protesting.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the protesters, led by one Olawale Adebayo, had arrived the popular Olaiya Junction to address newsmen on the reason for the protest.
The protesters who had mobilised no fewer than 30 persons were halted by the DSS and police personnel who arrived the scene.
The operatives asked the protesters to disperse but were rebuffed by a group of youths numbering no fewer than 30 and decked in orange berets and handkerchiefs.
The youths stood their ground and sang protest songs.
NAN reports that at this point, the security team threw tear gas at the crowd which eventually dispersed them.
In Calabar, Cross River State, the correspondent of the Nations Newspaper in, Mr Nicholas Kalu, was arrested at the Cultural Center, Calabar, venue of the #RevolutionNow protest in the state.
Kalu was arrested with some members of the African Action Congress (AAC) and taken to the State Police Command Headquarters at Diamond Hill in Calabar.
Speaking on the arrest, Chairman, Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ), Mr Victor Udu, condemned the arrest and called for the immediate release of the journalist.
“I condemn the act totally, the journalist was just doing his job, he did not go there with any weapon; we call for his immediate and unconditional release,” Udu said.
Similarly, a human right lawyer, James Ibor, said the arrest of the journalist was regrettable and uncalled for.
“The arrest of a journalist who went to scout for information to brief the public is condemnable and it is a way of ensuring that not just the public is gagged, but the press also,” Ibor said.
In his reaction, the Commissioner of Police in the state, CP Austin Agbonlahor, said that all the people arrested in relation to the protest are in police custody.
He said they would undergo interrogations to reveal who is a journalist and who is not.
Though an early morning heavy rainfall in Abuja severely hampered any plan by protest organizers to rally in the federal capital, a few protesters still gathered in front of the office of the National Human Rights Commission to vent their views on the current situation in the country.
Other parts of the country were quiet in relation to the call for protest march as Nigerians went about their businesses as usual, peacefully, to the admiration of President Muhammadu Buhari who thanked them for ignoring the call of the protest organizers.
