Sowore Insists No Going Back On #FearlessInOctober Protests, Says Police Will Receive Notice When Protests Happen All Around Them
Human rights activist and convener of #RevolutionNow movement, Omoyele Sowore, has insisted Nigerians will protest on Tuesday, October 1, against bad governance.
The renowned activist said this during an interview with Daily Trust, adding that the recent intimidations from Nigerian government and security operatives will not dissuade the citizens from protesting against economic hardship in the country.
The former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) refused to disclose the protest plans but said, “I can tell you that there will be protests. I can also confirm to you that I will be out there on the protest lines, joining my voice to that of other Nigerian patriots, to denounce the anti-people policies of this government.
“The protests will be peaceful and they will be national, across the country. The protests will hold across all parts of Nigeria because the scale of the devastation, hunger, insecurity, and hardship that this government has unleashed on Nigerians is national. I will emphasise again that these will be peaceful protests, as they’ve always been.
“The last protests were peaceful, yet the government met the protesters with batons and bullets.
“We will not be deterred, though. Our only weapon is truth, and no amount of force or violence will prevent us from speaking truth to power,” he said.
Sowore added that the Nigeria Police Force does not need any formal notice about the planned nationwide protests, tagged #FearlessInOctober because the demonstrations against hunger and insecurity will happen around them.
He said: “The police are aware that there will be protests. They understand why there will be protests. After all, they are Nigerians as well. They go to the same markets as everyone else.
“Their children attend the same schools that have become unaffordable to the common person. They are suffering the exact effects of high inflation. They are the ones being shot at by bandits and terrorists.”
“The notice that the police need is that protests will happen all around them,” he added.
Sowore also demanded the immediate and unconstitutional release of all the prisoners from the last demonstrations and all political prisoners in Nigeria ahead of #FearlessInOctober mass protests.
Sowore said their demands from the Bola Tinubu-led government touched on the economy, jobs, security and conditional reforms.
These demands, he insisted, should be addressed by Tinubu’s administration immediately. He lamented that Nigerian people are facing unimaginable suffering as a result of the policies of the Tinubu administration.
