Members of the Coalition for Revolution (CORE), organisers of the #RevolutionNow nationwide protests have said they will resume street marches across the country come Monday August 19.
It would be recalled that when the action started last Monday August 5, the protesters had brushes with combined forces of the nation’s security agencies across the country, which used maximum force to stop the march, with many arrested and several of them injured.
This was as Comrade Omoyele Sowore, the CORE’s Convener and National Chairman and Presidential candidate of Africa Action Congress (AAC), was arrested by the operatives of the Department of State Service (DSS) in Lagos two days to the commencement of the protests.
However, addressing newsman in Lagos on Friday, CORE’s Co-Convener, Olaseni Ajai, announced that the activists would continue with the mass protests, termed ‘Days of Rage’, on Monday August 19 in parts of the country, saying that nothing would stop a popular and peaceful march.
Ajai, who was supported with scores of activists and civil society organisations (CSOs), who met on Friday morning in Ikeja, Lagos, said that the Nigerian people should rise up in defence of genuine democracy, which he stressed, was the purpose of the protests.
According to him, students, market women, artisans and workers’ unions should unite to usher in a new Nigeria by true and popular democracy that would birth a better society, even as he lamented that security agents had been hounding members of the group in parts of the country since last Monday.
He condemned last Wednesday’s court ruling ordering the DSS to detain Sowore for 45 days from August 8, saying the courts are being used to resurrect the abrogated Decree 2, which was in operation during President Muhammadu Buhari’s first coming as Military Head of State.
Describing the court ruling as absurd, Ajai lamented that Sowore had been in detention since his arrest on Saturday August 3, 2019, and wondered what offence he committed that would warrant his detention without trial for such a long time, declaring the court order was against the fundamental human rights as enshrined in the nation’s constitution.
Ajai, however, said that the CORE’s legal team had been working to ensure that Sowore would be released soon, even as he thanked Nigerians for the support the protest had received so far, discountenancing the government’s assertion that the protesters were after a regime change.
He maintained that by the term ‘Revolution’, the CORE was only advocating for a better Nigeria, just as the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Buhari used the word ‘Change’ when they were campaigning for the 2015 general elections, adding that the word ‘Revolution’ only means ‘Change’.
According to him, “We wish to state that we shall continue to challenge this tyranny in both the court and on the street via peaceful protests and agitation. We shall definitely not bow to tyranny and we shall defend our rights.
“The decision-making organs of CORE are meeting to strategise on further actions. We will continue mass mobilisation for liberation. Our stand irrevocably remains.”
Ajai reeled out the five-point demand of the protesters, which included an economy that works for the masses, an effective and democratic end to insecurity, an end to systematic corruption and for total system change, the immediate implementation of the N30,000 national minimum wage, and free and qualitative education for all.
He stressed: “We need a new order and we are bold to say so. We urge the government to stop the attempt at diverting people’s opinion from the issues. We are non-violent and unarmed Nigerians. But, we are equipped with words of truth and a conscience craving for justice, equity and fairness.
“We can no longer watch as Nigerians are being roasted alive in foreign countries. Our citizens are being raped, extorted and abused in foreign lands. Those at home cannot get good education, god healthcare and employment. The level of insecurity in the North, South, East and West is a source of worry.”
