Human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), played a key role in averting what could have been a major crisis between a combined team of Police, Military, Department of State Security (DSS) operatives and pro-democracy activists, who gathered in Lagos for a democracy and security summit.
The summit, termed ‘National Discourse’, was a brainchild of Coalition for Revolution (CORE), promoters of the on-going nationwide #RevolutionNow mass protests, with the theme, ‘Democracy, State Repression and State of Insecurity in Nigeria’.
As early as 7.a.m on Monday, truck loads of armed policemen, soldiers and DSS operatives numbering over 500 stormed ‘The Logos Centre’, venue of the summit at Ibijoke Street Oluyole, Oregun, Lagos, sealed off the complex and disallowed everybody from entering the place for the summit billed for 11.a.m.
Even the proprietor and Minister-in-Charge of the Centre, Venerable Funso Awe, an activist and governorship candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP) in the 2019 governorship election, was preventing from accessing his office in the place.
Among those billed to speak during the event were Falana (SAN), Femi Aborishade, Prof. Anthony Kila, Gbenga Komolafe, Barrister Affiong L. Affiong, Prof. Omotoye Olorode, Comrade Abdulmumeen S. Sanni, Engineer Martins Onovo, Segun Awosanya, Edris Abdulkareem and Seun Kuti.
The police told everyone on sight that they were acting on “orders from above” to stop everyone from accessing the centre, even as passers-by and residents of the area were reportedly intimidated and harassed.
It would be recalled that security agencies had on Monday August 5 stopped the #RevolutionNow nationwide protest organised by CORE, while the initiator, Omoyele Sowore, National Chairman and Presidential candidate of African Action Congress (AAC), was arrested and taken to Abuja, where a Federal High Court slammed him with a detention order for 45 days in the first instance.
The organisers had initially planned to resume the nationwide protests on Monday, but had to re-strategise following wider consultations, thereby changing the protest to the summit, thus collapsing into what was termed ‘A Working Consultative Assembly of Activists and Organisations against the Draconian Development and Detention of Scores of Activists’.
However, as tension mounted at the venue of the summit on Monday with the participants and guest speakers milling along the street, when it became clear that there could be a clash, Falana challenged the police for their action, which he said was illegal.
He told them that they lacked the power and had no right to prevent the people from holding a peaceful meeting in a democratic setting, urging them to allow the participants to hold the summit, which he insisted was in national interest.
After consultations among the top security personnel, who in turn briefed their superiors, the people were allowed into the venue for the commencement of the summit, but, with the hundreds of policemen stationed outside the complex and along the street.
Speaking on the development, Chief Onovo lamented the manner the police invaded the centre, saying that the nation had descended to a ‘Gestapo State, saying the trend was not good for the nation’s democracy.
Onovo, who spoke to The NEXT EDITION at the venue of the summit, stated: “We are here for a peaceful summit and the police came to stop us. What is our offence that we cannot discuss democracy and insecurity? Nigeria is not a Gestapo State. But, it will collapse.
“How long can they stop us? Instead of pursing the Boko Haram, they are chasing innocent people. This is a disgrace, precarious and intolerable. We cannot discuss democracy and insecurity? We will continue until they give up.”
Maxi Okwu, seasoned politician and former factional National Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), who also spoke to NEXT EDITION on the development, stated: “The Constitution, Section 40 and Case Law allows Nigerians to gather freely and peacefully without clearance or interference from any quarters.
“What the police is doing in Lagos is not only unconstitutional, but also irresponsible. We are gradually sliding into dictatorship and intolerance from the government at the centre. Compared with what is happening in Hong Kong today, we are in a fake democracy.”
However, during the summit proper, Falana urged Nigerians not to give up on democracy, even as he stated that the people must insist on their rights, as citizens had the right to question how they were being administered.
He also spoke on the issue of ‘Revolution’, which he said was simply a demand for a change in how the citizens were being ruled, for a better order, adding that such a demand could not be said to amount to treasonable felony.
Onovo, Aborishade, Seun Kuti and the other speakers, all stressed the need for the people to persevere and should not allow themselves to be intimidated by the authorities, as they maintained that the citizens had the right to gather and express themselves.
Mama Osogbo, the plantain seller, who was brutaised in Osogbo, Osun State, by the police during the August 5 protest, who was also invited to the event, lamented the suffering in the land and the hardship being faced by citizens across the country, hence she had to support the call for a revolution in the land.
She urged all Nigerians to back the call for change for the nation to witness a positive change, stressing that the time had come for Nigerians to enjoy the dividends of democracy.
Olaseni Ajai, Co-Convener of CORE, who also spoke to NEXT EDITION, expressed happiness that the activists succeeded in holding the summit despite intimidation and harassment by the security agents.
He called on the government to free all political detainees, including Omoyele Sowore and Ibrahim El-ZakyZaky, an end for systematic corruption, rationalization of the power sector, and probe of the sector’s privatization.
He also stressed the need for the implementation of the N30,000 national minimum wage, improved economy, free and qualitative education and sincere tackling of unemployment in the country, even as he stressed that the group would remain focused and determined not to let anyone take away the citizens’ rights to speech and association.
