Two days into the on-going #RevolutionNow protests, Coalition for Revolution (CORE), has called for the unconditional release of Omoyele Sowore, Convener of the nationwide protest, who was arrested by the operatives of the Department of State Service (DSS) on Saturday morning.
It also called for the release of several journalists and other citizens arrested by the different security agents during the first day of the protests in parts of the country on Monday.
This is as the Middle Belt Traditional Council (MBTC) and the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL) have also joined several Nigerians in demanding for the release of Sowore, National Chairman of African Action Congress (AAC) and founder of Sahara Reporters.
CORE, in a statement made available to NEXT EDITION on Tuesday, while recounting Monday’s experience of the protesters in the hands of security agencies across the country, stated that that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had proven beyond reasonable doubt that its tyrannical and despotic nature.
It its statement titled ‘#RevolutionNow: President Buhari Has Shown Real Terrorism Today’, said the actions of the combined team of security agents against peaceful protesters in over 21 states amounted to nothing, but repression.
The statement, signed by Olaseni Ajai, CORE’s Co-Convener and spokesperson of the nationwide protest, condemned what he termed the act of harassment and intimidation on the part of the security agents which he stressed was anti-democratic, and was meant to prevent the suffering masses and workers from embracing the protests meant to liberate them.
It also condemned the DSS siege to the premises of Media Lab in Ikeja GRA, in Lagos, which had been hosting the Sahara Reporters Media Foundation, as well as intimidation of journalists and other Nigerians who were on their normal and legal professional duties.
“But, despite the unreasonable threats by all state apparatus, the #RevolutionNow mass protests were successful in over 14 cities, locally and internationally. Nigerians trooped out in their thousands to express their displeasure at the poor living conditions, this administration like other previous ones, keeps inflicting on them. The international cities are London, Ireland, Berlin, Geneva and New York.
“The streets of Nigeria were heavily militarised like there was war. We won’t be wrong if we said war was declared against oppressed Nigerians expressing their anger in a civil way,” Ajai recounted.
Counting the costs of the protests, Ajai said: “Police officers dispersed the crowd of people with canisters of tear gas and gun shots, fired directly at protesters. A protester in Lagos was shot on the leg, while 32 were brutalised, beaten and injured by a combination of armed-to-the-teeth Police, DSS, SARS officers, soldiers and thugs.
“A total of 55 Nigerians, 30 in Ogun, nine in Lagos, two in Ore, two in Calabar, four in Oshogbo, three in Ibadan, five in Benue, were arrested as at the last count. At the moment, we are yet to confirm the number of indiscriminate arrests in several other cities as the police started arresting sympathisrs and passers-by in a Gestapo manner.”
He, however, congratulates the thousands of Nigerians that stormed the streets on Monday, adding, “We will continue our actions and communicate to the world the next Day of RAGE!”
CORE in its five-point demand from President Buhari and the ruling class, called for “An economy that works for all and not a handful of individuals, banks and foreign multinationals; an effective and democratic end to insecurity and insurgency and an end to systemic corruption and for total system change in the interest of all.”
It also called for the immediate implementation of the N30,000 minimum wage at all levels in the public service as agreed with the trade unions; education as an enforceable right and not a privilege.”
It stressed: “In the battle between the oppressors and the oppressed, the oppressors laugh first, but we the oppressed will laugh last. The trajectory of Abacha is still fondly in the minds of Nigerians!”
Comrade Debo Adeniran CACOL’s Executive Chairman, in a statement signed by Adegboyega Otunuga, the group’s Coordinator for Media and Publications, also called for Sowore’s unconditional release and the convocation of Sovereign National Conference (SNC) as antidote to perpetual demand for system change.
Adeniran stated: “CACOL, as a civil anti-corruption organisation, does not support violent take over of government, especially under a democratic or people-oriented arrangement where elections are periodically organised to choose who lead the mass under a free and transparent atmosphere, devoid of any travesty of sanctity of people’s collective will.
“We, however, appreciate the historical reality of a burgeoning society not being able to always change its fortune or fate in a dramatic and desirable manner through electoral arrangements alone. This is why we agree with all renown philosophers and thinkers alike who posit that, ‘Civil Actions’ are necessary and inevitable tonic for repositioning and rejigging the lots of the people within the labyrinth of unresolved social conflicts or contradictions.
“Against this background, we strongly believe that for Nigeria to actually make progress and reclaim its primal position in the comity of modern nations, the current government should heed the call for a resort to the various outcomes of deliberations and resolutions on the contentious national issues.
“These include resource control, state or regional Police, foreign policy, and even the making of a truly people-oriented constitution for the over 250 ethnic nationality groupings in Nigeria.
“We believe that no short-cut exists towards achieving this than the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC), which decisions must be binding and sovereign by the very agreement of all age-long issues of altercation and relevance within the Nigerian state.
“It is our belief that the refusal of successive governments in Nigeria to admit that the coming into existence of Nigeria, though desirable, was not altogether properly negotiated; and this has in no small measure, been responsible for deep rooted suspicion, economic degradation and subversion/corruption and general state of insecurity and social upheavals.”
According to him, having weighed the recent calls for a ‘Revolution’ by the erudite social activist turned politician, “we aver that calls for a revolution alone, whether ethical, agrarian, industrial or even social, did not and could not constitute treasonable felony acts on their own, except there were other unimpeachable evidences of arms insurrection, concrete proofs of inciting or consultations on arms struggle, etc., we may be unaware of but in possession of the state security agencies.
“That in itself may now also be debatable as social movements and prevailing conditions may remain veritable instruments of juxtaposition in resolving how mutiny and treason should be treated in a civil entity.
“However, nothing even points to these possibilities in this circumstance. We therefore, advise that Omoyele Sowore be granted an unconditional and immediate release to defray an unnecessary tension and heating up of the polity which his continued detention is only capable of fostering.”
The MBTC, which spoke through Ochi Emmanuel Ode, its chairman, also called for Sowore’s immediate release, urging the Federal Government to respect his fundamental human rights and rule of law, adding that the activist politician had a good intention in his actions.
Ode maintained that Sowore and his group’s grievances and demands were down to earth with the truth, even as wondered why the government always use coercive measures to subdue dissenting voices and protests.
He, however, maintained that if the government would not release Sowore, it should charge him to court, stressing that it would amount to illegality to continue to detain him after 24 hours.
